Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua ordered aides to shred a 1994 memo that identified 35 Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests suspected of sexually abusing children, according to a new court filing.
The order, outlined in a handwritten note locked away for years at the archdiocese’s Center City offices, was disclosed Friday by lawyers for Msgr. William J. Lynn, the former church administrator facing trial next month.
They say the shredding directive proves what Lynn has long claimed: that a church conspiracy to conceal clergy sex abuse was orchestrated at levels far above him.
***According to the motion, that safe remained untouched and unnoticed until 2006, when archdiocesan officials found it and hired a locksmith to open it. It’s unclear why the records inside were only recently turned over to Lynn’s lawyers and prosecutors, although church lawyers have said they have been reviewing thousands of files to comply with trial subpoenas.
Bevilacqua had cited the 35 priests before. In February 2002 – as the abuse scandal was roiling Catholics across the country – he said the archdiocese had turned over information on 35 suspected abusive priests to the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office. He did not mention any memo from eight years earlier or his order to shred it.
During 10 appearances before a grand jury in 2003 and 2004, Bevilacqua denied knowing details or playing a significant role in the handling of sex-abuse complaints, saying he delegated those duties to Lynn.
“I saw no evidence at any time that we did any cover-up,” he testified.
Why are they getting away with this?
(via)
The Republic of Stupidity
Because…
That’s why…
Next question…
Kiril
I want to see a cardinal in handcuffs on my TV.
Taobhan
Because they can. They always have and likely always will.
BGinCHI
But gay marriage! And contraception!
If either of these become commonplace, you know what will happen? Do you?
Well?
No, I can’t think of anything either.
BGinCHI
@Kiril: Probably happens every week on the telenovelas.
Nathaniel
Be careful Cole. You know that calling for justice for Church committed crimes means you just are an anti-Catholic bigot.
debit
Yeah, I was going to make a smart ass comment, then I remembered we’re talking about the rape of children and I felt ill and not very funny.
TooManyJens
I’m going to take a wild stab here and say, “Money and power.”
DougJarvus Green-Ellis
A crime syndicate with tax exempt status.
Heh.
BerkeleyMom
Religious Freedom!!
Martin
Because the US public has made government officials terrified of infringing on ‘religious freedom’ even in these cases.
Rafer Janders
During 10 appearances before a grand jury in 2003 and 2004,
I’m going to assume he was under oath….
beltane
They’ve been getting away with it for 2,000 years so they are probably safe in assuming they will continue to get away with it for another 2,000 years.
dr. bloor
At this rate, the Vatican is going to have start buying land from Italy to house all the collared perverts they’ll have to stash there.
BGinCHI
@Rafer Janders: Usually I’d support lying to one’s boss, but not this time.
thor heyerdahl
2000 years (well actually only about 1700) of coercion, corruption, and political intrigue means they’ll skate…
Wag
They get away with it because to do otherwise would infringe on the religious freedom of white males across the country, in not the entire world.
Andrew
He was, but he died four weeks ago.
Teacherboy
Well, they have been ‘getting away with it’ for millenia now. The Catholic Church has a vast, built in get out of jail free card, so I wouldn’t advise anyone holding their breath waiting for this to change. I’m normally not this cynical, but think about it – this is as clear a conspiracy to perpetrate systematic rape of children and then cover it up as you could realistically imagine. And after all this – nothing. The fact that everyday Catholics are not right at this moment matching through the streets dragging bishops and cardinals out from their churches tells you exactly why nothing has or will be done; the members are just fine with the church the way it is.
thor heyerdahl
For some reason I thought about this line in the 1970 version of MASH
Duke Forrest: Dammit, Henry, Frank Burns is a menace! Every time a patient croaks on him he says it’s “God’s will” or somebody else’s fault.
BGinCHI
@efgoldman: Wall Street.
Randiego
Is this the end of Rico?
Ricardo Cabeza
Because republicans make it impossible to bring justice to big crimes.
Like Banksters.
Like ChimpCo.
Like torture.
Like illegal wars.
And I guess systematically raping countless children over decades.
Martin
@efgoldman:
The good ones do. The NY mafia used to have a bunch of legitimate, tax paying businesses that they hid behind. But that’s not really the point. The point isn’t that the Church is supposed to be paying taxes but is dodging them, it’s that the government is saying: “Oh, and on top of all of the other crap you do, we give you permission to not pay taxes either.” IOW, the church should be MORE law abiding in exchange for the benefit than everyone else, not less.
Frankensteinbeck
The Vatican is also its own government. Serious question, are there issues of diplomatic immunity, extraterritoriality, anything of that nature involved? It’s a possibility I’d want confirmed or denied to help my understanding of how limply this has been prosecuted.
@Ricardo Cabeza:
There is certainly something to what you say. At least since Reagan (Iran-Contra, anyone?) the GOP has made prosecution of major crimes a purely partisan issue at every opportunity.
John O
This is one of those topics that makes me seriously mental.
Sad Iron
Cole, they’re getting away with it because we need someone to argue for the conscience of pharmacists across this great land, just in case they need to opt out of doing their jobs.
Too bad kids across the world couldn’t exercise their right of conscience to not be molested. The question I ask is not only why are they getting away with this, but why are people like the Bishops listened to for even one moment, on any platform? If Newt Gingrich appears with a white supremacist at CPAC, then we point it out as a scandal. Yet apparently it’s okay for Obama, and politicians in general, to actively engage the concerns of this worldwide pedophilia ring.
Chris
Because they can count on the support of large numbers of credulous bastards who don’t give a damn about anything but group identity and rally around them like sheep if you tell them it’s all a Vast Secular/Liberal Conspiracy against the Saintly Mother Church.
Martin
@Frankensteinbeck:
No. Everyone involved is a US citizen. Nobody is trying to prosecute the Pope here.
The Church™ has no power here. The power comes from the willingness of the voters to retaliate against government officials for acting. Look at how much energy was just expended over paying for health care for contraception. Voters have always had the power to influence which laws are defended and how – and that’s the power we see, not the power of the church hierarchy.
Gex
Why are they getting away with it? God = good. Christian = good. Actual actions and beliefs are unimportant. Labels. It’s all labels and tribal identification. These are white men raping children. Therefore, it can’t be bad.
Hey look over there! Gays! Gay = bad. Literally. Society literally changed the meaning of the word gay to mean bad because they hate us so much.
We get the government and the religion we deserve.
BethanyAnne
I say they’re not suave enough to use RICO.
Odie Hugh Manatee
There’s a problem with the first line in your quote:
Fix’t.
They aren’t being RICO’d because they are a religious organization; they’ve been religiously going after little boy tail and covering it up for decades. They have the one power that NAMBLA could only dream of;
God. People will excuse them for anything because of that.
I was driving in the car a few weeks ago and I let the radio scan the AM band to see what comes up. I call it Wingnut Radio Roulette and it pays off almost every time. Sure enough, I came across a Catholic radio station (IH Radio Network, KIIH) that plays music that sounds like it would be appropriate for The Exorcist. After about twenty minutes of listening the thought occurred to me that this is some of the most piss poor propaganda radio I have ever heard, something that would only warm the hearts of True Believers.
They’ve been on an anti-abortion rant since I started listening to them but what’s striking is how often they are talking about “Black Genocide” and how pro abortion people are trying to “exterminate a complete race”. Today someone named Dr. Karen Stevenson (Stephenson?) was ranting about this, going on about how Margaret Sanger was all about “free love” and that she really wanted kill black people, to reduce their numbers.
As former RC, this bullshit makes me feel good about having left that apocalyptic death cult long ago. It’s funny that a teenager could see through their bullshit but adults will willingly swallow it, mostly to assure themselves that their beliefs and ways of life are better than those of everyone else in the world. The Catholic church and their supporters impact society in very negative ways that I feel greatly outweigh any benefits they bring to it.
To put it bluntly, they hurt people and they intend to keep on doing it.
John O
@BethanyAnne:
Well, *I* thought it was funny. :-)
Odie Hugh Manatee
Hep me! Hep me!! My post has been held hostage by the capricious BJ Mod Gawd!
Free speech NAOW!!
Thanks. :)
kasnarski
$?
BethanyAnne
@John O: LOL
scandi
Because Obama is attacking the Catholic church. Why do you hate religion?
DougJarvus Green-Ellis
@BethanyAnne:
I was thinking about that too.
kasnarski
(sigh) never out of moderation /sigh
patrick II
@Ricardo Cabeza:
Republicans complain about the criminalization of politics, which enables them to practice the politicization of criminality.
BethanyAnne
@DougJarvus Green-Ellis: I’ve got the Weird Al version playing in my head now, hehe.
Shawn in ShowMe
How would the millions of true believers that still belong to the Catholic Church react to the criminal prosection that their leaders deserve? I imagine it would be viewed as an attack on the faith itself. And from what I understand, cornered animals have a tendency to react violently.
Any DOJ that seeks to reverse the policy of appeasement toward the Catholic power structure has to take that under consideration.
John O
@Shawn in ShowMe:
Who does the hard things? Those that can.
We don’t have any of those. Not at this level.
Gex
It’s funny. They think they’re so civilized, but they require way more ritual virgin sacrifice than any extinct religion.
Snarki, child of Loki
@Martin:
IIRC, Cardinals get Vatican citizenship. Ordinary bishops and the like, no. But no diplomatic immunity, and perhaps would keep US citizenship, so hard to deport.
I’m sure there are mobsters that are thinking “Man, if only WE got a few of OUR guys on the Supreme Court!”
Chuck Butcher
I suppose there is the aspect of RICO where people would want to know why their assets aren’t being siezed prior to trial.
Gex
@Snarki, child of Loki: This is why Dolan just made Cardinal. He was in charge in Milwaukee where they discovered 8000 unaccounted for cases of child abuse in church records.
Gex
I hate these people with a fiery passion, and I hate the “good” Catholics that continue to prop up the institution, and I hate all the “good” Christians that give them cover.
Fucking tired of hearing how my liberal secular values are evil incarnate by people who just aren’t too bothered by child rape.
Christians could take a stand and hold their leadership to account. They won’t. They’ll rally against gay marriage but they won’t lift a finger to protect these children.
ETA: I guess it is actually just their children at risk though. Me and mine are non-believers, so we send our kids to secular activities where the adults are mandated reporters and are subject to the rule of law. Still, it’s not those kids’ fault their parents refuse to keep them safe.
John O
@Gex:
Thank you.
Peregrinus
@Shawn in ShowMe: @Teacherboy:
I’m one Catholic who would like to see some high-ranking Church officials doing perp walks on the evening news, and I know that there are others. Unfortunately, too many of my brethren in the faith are in severe denial about the Church’s hierarchy. I’ve been acquainted with a number of conservative Catholics for a few years now, and their usual postings on FB or on other social media amount to “well, statistically, teachers are far greater perpetrators of sexual abuse than Catholic priests.”
As awesome as it would be to have a congregation stand up and make a citizen’s arrest en masse (no pun intended), I think the main problem right now for your average churchgoer is that the Church’s structure isolates the hierarchs, who have the real decision-making power, from the public. We have a fairly active bishop in my diocese who takes a lot of heat for his (to a conservative Catholic) “liberal agenda,” but my understanding is that in a lot of other places you’d rarely, if ever, see the bishop around. Someone like Cardinal Bevilacqua was probably far more remembered by his former congregations than by the average diocesan citizen of Philadelphia.
Now, if His Excellency’s ever discovered to be hiding an entrenched system of child abuse from this diocese, perhaps I’ll get a chance to put that plan into action sooner rather than later.
BillE
They have a ton of politicians by the balls. Once they started denial of communion to people who don’t play ball their way the game changed. Now we have a majority on Supreme court that is catholic. Wonder if they would ever uphold a conviction or allow any type of evidentiery proceeding go forward if challenged.
Here in Philly the church is paying top dollar for their legal representation to prevent all of this from coming to light.
I like how Bishop Cardinal? Egan recently took back his apology and said it was a mistake to have made it.
Some reporter should go to Rome and ask to see some of these guys they have stashed over there.
TenguPhule
Invade Rome and bomb the Vatican to the Dark Ages.
Problem Solved.
Hey, we’ve destroyed other countries with less justification at this pint.
jo6pac
Please get a life the RICO is only for those that break the law and we all know that is Main Street and not the so called elite.
Gex
@Peregrinus: I always wonder why the people who act as though they are morally superior, and become men of the cloth, are absolutely not supposed to be held to a higher standard.
At least the school teacher situation has the following:
1) The rule of law applies
2) Mandated reporting holds others accountable if they overlook known abuse
The Church does not have that, therefore it won’t just be as bad as school, it will be worse.
eemom
Did you fucking read the article? Did you perhaps notice that the part you quoted explains how this whole thing got out because one of them HAS BEEN CHARGED and is going to trial next month? True, the Cardinal hasn’t been charged, but that’s because he’s dead.
I hate the Catholic church as much as any of you, and I agree the church as an institution will likely never come close to facing justice for its vast, horrifying, institutional evil — but simplistic shit like “why are they getting away with this?” is just tiresome. The criminal justice system is fucked up, slow and inefficient in ALL contexts — and that’s not even getting into the question of what “justice” even means in a system where the scales are so obscenely weighted in favor of money.
PeakVT
@Teacherboy: this is as clear a conspiracy to perpetrate systematic rape of children and then cover it up as you could realistically imagine.
I agree 100% there was a conspiracy to cover-up, but AFAIK there is no evidence the Catholic Church conspired to commit rape.
goblue72
I got 99 Theses and baby-raping ain’t one. – Martin Luther
Peregrinus
@Gex:
Completely agreed. Among the “others” I mentioned who would be quite happy to see a few bishops in handcuffs is my father, who was a public school teacher for many years. He was (and is) pretty disaffected towards the Church precisely because he believes men of the cloth need to be raised to a higher standard than everyone else.
I’m also a teacher (Jesuit school, in my case) and have been given some pretty specific rules about situations to avoid with students, so that Caesar’s wife ought not to even be under suspicion, if you take my meaning. I’d absolutely love to see tougher standards than that.
eemom
@BillE:
Well shit. The Catholic church and AIPAC can’t BOTH be the puppetmasters of all three branches of government and every one of our elected officials.
This conspiracy is even deeper than we thought. Quick, do some more research before they penetrate your protective tinfoil!
Peregrinus
@BillE:
Heh. On the one hand, I’m still convinced that that was less him sticking to his guns and more the reply of a senile old man being asked for a statement on something he probably didn’t want to talk about ever again. On the other, regardless of the last statement, Cardinal Egan still proved himself to be a particularly glittering example of why the last three generations of Catholic leadership need to shuffle off this mortal coil already.
Peregrinus
@eemom:
Finally! Someone has discovered the reason for the last few Popes’ attempts at ecumenism. Wonder if there’s a Catholic analogue of Wolf Blitzer just waiting in the wings for his big day.
Tokyokie
When I think of how the GOP wants to bend the healthcare law to fit the moral certitude of the upper-echelon of the Roman Catholic Church, I think of their cowardice in the face of this worldwide scandal. To my knowledge, not a single Catholic cardinal has taken the pulpit to condemn those who committed these atrocities and those who knowingly allowed the atrocities to continue. (And the latter includes in their number the former Hitler Youth member who’s now pope.) I’m not talking about some mealy-mouthed statement of regret for mistakes that were made, but an unequivocal condemnation of those who participated in this outrage at every level. And that’s because every single member of the College of Cardinals considers protecting the most vulnerable members of his flock to be of less importance than advancing his career in church politics. Situational ethics indeed.
And then based on the dodgy interpretation of a single biblical passage by Pius XI (the pope who reached accommodation with both Mussolini and Hitler and on whose watch the openly Fascist Opus Dei arose), they’ve been on a crusade against all forms of contraception for 80 years.
I think I realized when I was a mere teenager that virtually everybody I knew who’d make a deliberate public display of religiosity had no understanding of right and wrong. And an organization that steadfastly refuses to rid itself of an unmitigated evil such as child rape has absolutely no standing as a moral arbiter. Crap like this is why I haven’t attended church since I came to that realization. If an organization that accepts child rape is supposed to guide me along the path or righteousness, uh, no thanks. I’ll find my own way.
Amanda in the South Bay
The answer is: because a lot of prominent, well educated, and affluent people off all political stripes are Catholic. SATSQ.
Bob Treadway
The legal reason that you can’t use RICO against the church is because RICO has been held not to apply to non economic injuries. It is for injuries to someone’s business or money, not for a personal injury.
I know: when I was practicing law, I tried to bring one against them. If you think the Church is not evil, read David Margolick’s A Pedophile Priest, available as a Kindle Single. Every word in it is consistent with my experiences suing them. BTW, my lawsuit ultimately included over 20 victims, and we recovered over $5 million from the Church.
dmbeaster
@Tokyokie:
Not quite on the money – what they view as more important to protect is not so much their personal ambition but the prerogative of the Catholic Church to control its own affairs and not be answerable to any outside source. Their personal ambition can then play itself out within that sphere. In a word, it is clericalism that is at the dark heart of the Catholic Church.
This basic problem – abuse by spiritual advisers of the weak that they nurture and are supposed to protect – is common to many institutions other than the Catholic Church. As remarked above, Catholic apologists may be right when they point out that the percentage of abusers amongst the Catholic clergy is lower than say public school teachers. But what is unique to the Catholic Church is that the institution asserts the right to reject any outside authority over its affairs, and to be the only power that can address the pedophillia. Thus, you have the unique circumstance of the very highest leadership refusing to report crimes and covering them up. And because covering it up is more important than subjecting Church affairs to outside control and scrutiny, the leadership moves the pedophiles around to hide the problem.
And the gray men of the Vatican care about this principle more than anything, so it is no surprise that the culture of denial of wrongdoing and lying about it now goes to the very top.
The hot button would be pressure on the Pope to declare that it is the spiritual duty of every Cardinal and Bishop to report to local authorities all evidence of child sexual abuse, and cooperate fully in any criminal proceedings brought against pedophile clergy. And further, that is the duty of all clergy to report to local authorities evidence of a cover up of pedophilia for prosecution, no matter who is engaging in the cover up, and that the Church leadership would protect such whistleblowers.
But that is exactly what will never happen, and the current Pope made his career by making it clear to his brethren that it would not happen under his watch.
eemom
No, the GOP wants to DESTROY the healthcare law — or failing that, weaken it every way they can — in order to destroy Obama. The Catholic shit is just a means to that end.
I seriously can’t believe how readily some of you people flock to every conspiracy theory waved in front of you.
Roger that.
Arclite
Isn’t it obvious? Constitutionally protected freedom of religion.
GARY CAMPBELL
Jesus Christ!
Just start killing these fuckers in the street!
Fuck justice! Turn the other barrel and kill another cock suckin priest! Destroy this centuries old pedophile institution already.
If the motherfuckers touched my kid, they couldn’t run far enough to get away from me, the fuckin pope included!
He even looks like an old cocksucker!
These bastards need to be run down and killed like the animals they are! God Damn Fuckin Catholic cocksuckers!
Then tell the judge when they charge you that GOD made you do it!
PeakVT
@GARY CAMPBELL: Fuck off with that kind of talk.
MariedeGournay
Leave it to the Catholic Church to make the Cosa Nostra look like legitimate business men.
Jimbo316
I was born and raised as a Catholic in the ’60s, apparently when this was happening. I am an long since an agnostic. I certainly believe the identified clergy should be prosecuted as the criminals that they are. The Church needs to allow women priests and married priests otherwise the disease continues.
Tehanu
@dmbeaster:
This is why they made Thomas Becket a saint. It’s what his conflict with Henry II (the well-named “Lawgiver”) was about. Henry thought the Church should be subject to the same laws as everybody else, and IMHO he was right — but he made the mistake of shooting his mouth off about what a giant pain in the ass Becket had turned into, thereby giving his dumb flunkies the idea that it would be A-okay to whack Becket in his own church. So Becket won, and the result is that scumbags like Egan and Bevilaqua and Pope Ratzi think God’s on their side.
Persia
@Bob Treadway: That Kindle Single is heartbreaking.
Edit: And thank you, btw.
Thymezone
This isn’t about Catholics. Catholics don’t condone these things. But the Church as an institution is oviously unable to manage its handling of this tragedy. However, more to the point here, on what basis does this Church claim to stand on any moral ground that justifies its meddling in the private lives of the laity? On what moral ground does this institution stand? On what history does it stand? Its denial of the solar system? In a sane and ethical organization, the leadership would sit down around the table and set out a plan to act like adults and treat other people with respect first … and preach later. Apparently this org doesn’t have that capacity. An org that “sponsors” nonprofit corporations which gladly offer contraceptives as part of a competitive hiring and retention healthcare insurance package, want to cry “religious intolerance” when a sensible government correctly asks all such corporations to do the same thing. And they wonder why the people are running away from their propaganda, ignoring their teachings on this subject, and lining up in droves to vote for their political enemies?
The Raven
“Why are they getting away with it?”
Because they’re Too Big To Fail.
Croak!
OzoneR
My grandmother got up to watch Bevilacqua’s funeral, and she’s from no where near Philadelphia.
You bring up the child abuse scandal and she says “the boys wanted it” or “they’re lying to extort money”
They’re getting away with this because religion does something crazy to people- it brainwashes them.
greenergood
@OzoneR: My mom’s kind of the same: ‘oh, it’s a product of the liberal 1960s. Priests thought they could be part of a more liberal, liberated society, etc. etc. All the seminaries had less priestly candidates due to looser morals, etc. etc.’ What I don’t understand is how legally all thse files could’ve been shredded, unless the Catholic Church felt it was above the laws of the US government it was living in, which gets us back to Henry VIII, and the whole 16th-century shitstorm starts rolling again.
Lex
@eemom: Please. The fact that the Church knew about this stuff and hid it and obstructed investigations and in some cases bribed or threatened victims or their families to keep quiet has been common knowledge since John Paul II still walked among us. The incumbent Pope is in this crap up to his eyeballs. I’d be stunned if there are 10 members of the College of Cardinals who haven’t been involved in the cover-up of at least one case.
One guy has been charged? Big whup.