09 FEB 02:
IS THE CATHOLIC CHURCH SIMPLY THE RELIGIOUS WING OF NAMBLA?

From the LATimes:

Reports of Priests’ Abuse
Enrage Boston Catholics

By ELIZABETH MEHREN, TIMES
STAFF WRITER

BOSTON — Among Catholics
here, the floodgates of rage and disappointment poured open this week.

    On radio
talk shows, in chatter at convenience stores and in emergency “listening
sessions” convened hastily by the Archdiocese of Boston, the faithful vented
anger and frustration over daily disclosures that scores of pedophile priests
worked in the region with the full knowledge of church officials.

    As the
number of implicated clergy members soared to 80, the crisis grew so deep
that nearly half the Roman Catholics polled said Cardinal Bernard Law should
resign. The turmoil over what church officials knew, when they knew it
and what they did or did not do to protect themselves and their parishioners
has rocked a region that is more than 50% Catholic.

    “This
is our Sept. 11,” Boston College professor Thomas H. Groome said Friday.

   
By week’s end, the archdiocese had given law enforcement authorities the
names of at least 80 priests accused of sexual misconduct with minors over
the last 20 or more years.

    The archdiocese
also announced Thursday that six more priests had been suspended. Earlier
in the week, the archdiocese relieved two other priests of duties, also
following accusations that they had sexual relations with children.

    Both
actions came days after Law publicly insisted that all priests in his jurisdiction
who were suspected of sexually abusing children had been removed from their
duties…

    The survey
found that 64% said church leaders care more about protecting the accused
priests than helping the victims.

    “I think
for a long time people have known that the church has been aware of these
problems and has not acted expeditiously,” said Lisa Cahill, a professor
of moral theology at Boston College, a Jesuit institution.

    “Part
of what’s appalling,” she continued, “is the extensiveness of the problem,
based just on the number of these priests that keep surfacing in New England.
Every day, you hear about six more cases.”

   

Recently, the archdiocese said it had settled so many child sexual abuse
claims against it that a multimillion-dollar insurance fund was running
dry.

    Scandals
involving pedophile priests have hit parishes across America–and indeed,
around the world–in recent decades. Thousands of adults have come forward
to say they were abused as children and many priests have been sent to
jail.

    At first,
accusations against Father James Geoghan seemed no different. The 66-year-old
defrocked priest was charged in three separate criminal sexual abuse cases
dating from the 1980s and 1990s. More than 130 people have claimed they
were fondled or molested by Geoghan, who also is a defendant in 84 civil
lawsuits.

    But in
the course of the Geoghan investigation, Law was forced to tell prosecutors
that the priest’s pattern of pedophilia was no secret in the local Catholic
hierarchy.

    Law abruptly
promised to supply law enforcement agencies with names of priests suspected
of such behavior. He organized a panel including medical experts to look
into sexual abuse within the church. The cardinal also appealed for public
understanding, urging Catholics to pray for him as he faced this difficult
situation.

    On Jan.
25, he vowed, “There is no priest, or former priest, working in this archdiocese
in any assignment whom we know to have been responsible for sexual abuse.”

    Days
later, he removed two more priests for alleged child molestation.

    The archdiocese
did not respond to requests Friday for an interview with the cardinal.
However, after returning from the Vatican, Law told local reporters at
Logan International Airport: “Our intent is to do everything we possibly
can to ensure the protection of children.”

    Around
the archdiocese, the scope of the scandal–and its growing momentum–continued
to shock Catholics, who expressed grief, outrage and, most of all, a sense
of betrayal.

    “You
have an organization that is based on faith, and part of that faith derives
from your confidence in the institution that houses that faith,” said Paul
Nace, a real estate developer in Newton who was raised Catholic.

    “When
events happen that call into question that institution, at a very basic
and moral level it also calls into question your faith,” Nace said.

    As horrific
as the spiraling number of clergy sexual abuse cases might be, “the most
disturbing part is that it appears that decisions were made to protect
the institution at the expense of the victims,” Nace said. “You’ve got
a head-on, loggerhead collision with everything that institution is supposed
to stand for.”

    Groome,
a former priest and author of a new book called “What Makes Us Catholic,”
said that to Catholics, the church represents a vastly more important institution
than in some other denominations.

    “We have
obviously exaggerated the importance of the institution,” he said. “Everybody
has a priesthood, and everybody invests in their priesthood, but nobody
in the Western world has invested in their priesthood the way Catholics
have. This is why all of this is so desperately shattering.”

    Mitchell
Garabedian, an attorney representing 84 plaintiffs in civil suits against
Geoghan, said his clients have had their faith ravaged by their experiences.

    “They
cannot seek spiritual relief anywhere because of what has happened to them,”
Garabedian said. “The very entity they want to
turn to has in a sense helped them to be molested. It is mind-boggling.”

    Some
of the claims he has looked into involving the Boston archdiocese date
back more than 40 years, Garabedian said. Far from surprised that so many
names of alleged predator priests have been put forward by the church,
“I’d be surprised if more names were not revealed,” he said.

    “There
is a serious problem within the Archdiocese of Boston,” Garabedian went
on. “For decades they have been imprisoned by pedophiles and shackled by
their own denial.”

    The troubles
at the archdiocese took a new turn late in the week when a family in which
both a father and son were abused by priests filed a suit against Cardinal
Law. The latest legal action–the first directed at the cardinal himself–claims
Law “intentionally” and “recklessly” inflicted emotional damage on Thomas
and Christopher Fulchino by knowingly assigning a pedophile priest to their
parish.