Testimony begins in Pa. trial of Catholic priests

Catholic priests sure do love those altar boys, don’t they?

Keep sending your children to Catholic schools and churches you morons; expose your kids to these sexual perverts who hide behind the cloth while claiming to do “God’s work.” But keep this in mind as you turn over your loved ones, and your money, to these sexual deviants: your kids may not thank you for it in years to come… TGO

Refer to story below. Source: Associated Press

Associated PressBy MARYCLAIRE DALE | Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — After nine years and two grand jury reports, prosecutors have brought a landmark case to trial that explores how the Archdiocese of Philadelphia dealt with child sex-abuse complaints against scores of Roman Catholic priests.

Monsignor William Lynn is the first U.S. church official ever charged over his handling of abuse complaints. He supervised more than 800 priests as the secretary for clergy in Philadelphia from 1992 to 2004.

Prosecutors charge that Lynn kept dangerous priests in parish to work around children to protect the church’s reputation and avoid scandal. They say the church kept secret files dating to 1948 that show a long-standing conspiracy to doubt sex abuse victims and protect priests.

Assistant District Attorney Jacqueline Coelho called the case “a battle between right and wrong within the archdiocese and the office of secretary for clergy.”

But defense lawyer Thomas Bergstrom said Monday that Lynn had the “ugly job” of overseeing sex abuse complaints but that Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua alone determined priest assignments and transfers.

“There is documentary evidence that the sexual abuse of children happened in the Catholic Church,” Bergstrom said. “We’re not going to run from that. He (Lynn), perhaps alone, is the one who tried to correct it.”

Lynn, 61, appeared solemn in court, where he has appeared often the past few months for pretrial hearings and jury selection. He has been under investigation for eight years, through two grand jury investigations that blasted Bevilacqua and his successor, Cardinal Justin Rigali, saying they covered up child sex complaints lodged against more than 60 priests.

But Lynn was the only supervisor charged. If convicted of two counts each of conspiracy and child endangerment, Lynn faces up to 28 years in prison.

Bevilacqua died in January, although the jury might see a videotaped deposition he gave weeks earlier. The trial could last several months.

Besides Lynn, Rev. James Brennan is on trial, accused of raping a 14-year-old boy in 1996. Both men entered not guilty pleas Monday. A third defendant, defrocked priest Edward Avery, pleaded guilty last week to charges in the case.

Defense lawyers have long planned to attack the credibility of the two accusers, who have struggled with drug addiction and have criminal records. But that strategy took something of a hit when Avery entered the surprise guilty plea Thursday.

Avery, who moonlighted as a disc jockey and adopted six Hmong children during his years in the priesthood, admitted that he sexually assaulted a 10-year-old altar boy in a church sacristy in 1999. That victim accused another priest and his sixth-grade teacher of raping him during his parochial school years. They will go on trial separately because neither was an archdiocesan priest reporting to Lynn.

Brennan’s accuser has convictions for theft and filing a false police report and called none other than the person he accused of abusing him when he needed to do court-ordered community service, a defense lawyer said.

“If you don’t believe (him) … the case is over,” said lawyer William Brennan, who is not related to his client.

Avery’s plea also acknowledged that the archdiocese kept him in ministry despite being aware of an earlier complaint. That complaint, dating to 1992, was detailed in court Monday by the first witness to take the stand in the trial.

A Philadelphia detective read a 1992 letter from a medical student that said Avery had once gotten him drunk and molested him after a DJ stint at a West Philadelphia nightclub and later on a ski trip.

“I do not want money or any kind of media scandal,” the accuser wrote. “I need to know that he has been evaluated and treated for this disorder and his threat to other impressionable young men is gone.”

The archdiocese interviewed Avery, who denied the allegations before saying they could have happened when he was drunk.

“I thought he was a potential (priest). I was so good to him,” Avery told Lynn and Bishop Joseph Cistone in a 1992 interview, according to an archdiocesan memo read in court.

Avery was sent for inpatient therapy for eight months before returning to the ministry. He sexually assaulted the altar boy seven years later, he admitted Thursday.

About The Great One

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14 Responses to Testimony begins in Pa. trial of Catholic priests

  1. GhostRider says:

    Once again predictable as you only have two types of replies and this time you used, Type 2 – the one you use when you get your panties all bunched up.

    Wow!!!!! Not only have you walked off the reservation in this private Idaho of yours, but you never did turn and look back, did ya! Believe me, Dude, if there was a kinder way of saying it, I’d use it.

    Oh no, I’ve known it for decades now. That you think you’re never incorrect and are smarter than all the rest, that is! Come this September 13, it will be 56yrs that I’ve known a skeptic really good and up close. Oh, come on now. Don’t get your panties bunched up and give yourself yet another wedgie! I know there is a difference between you and my father – he had 6yrs of schooling, you had 16.

    Having said that, I leave you with a musical interlude by Eminem. I believe there’s a version for you but I couldn’t find it. It’s the one that has two girls singing the chorus instead of one.
    GhostRider Wisdom – as always!

    • TGO says:

      Casper, if I’m predictable, what are you; mundane, repetitive, monotonous, all of the above? For someone who uses the same lines over and over and over again, whether trying to pick up a chick (any chick); in “normal” conversation with guys; or writing silly comments on this Blog – you are the king of kings when it comes to predictability.

      Anyway, I may be in my own private Idaho, but you’re in your own private Montana (much larger in area than Idaho). But just remember, this Idaho resident is the only one who has had the depth of character, patience, understanding, and ability to see beyond the obvious to stick around as I have when others are only willing to take in small doses for limited periods of time – and I know that you know what I mean.

      And no, I don’t think I’m smarter than all the rest, I KNOW that I am smarter than all the rest.

      By the way, thanks for the Eminem song. Yeap, he’s certainly brilliant, as brilliant as a broken light bulb. Those were “AMAZING” lyrics – only thing is, I could walk into any ghetto in any metropolitan area in this country and hear the same jive-talk from street-walkers and pimps. Brilliant!

  2. GhostRider says:

    LOL…I AM LAUGHING MY ASS OFF! Silly Man, but of course I knew – almost word for word and not because of your predictability – that this would be your reply. You see, I know that when you look in the mirror you see a skeptic and as everyone well knows, skeptics are smarter than all others, and whether it has to do with Current Affairs, Entertainment, Philosophy, Politics, Religion, Science, or Fantasy Football, they know it all, and are NEVER incorrect. Michael Jackson may have been right about, “the man in the mirror”, but man just does not want to look in the mirror and I completely understand why. Once again, I say this from looking; at best it ain’t fun and at worst, it’s downright painful.

    Man’s consciousness must evolve if there is any hope that the number of hundreds of thousands of children abused by priests, or the few others that are abused by men like Sandusky, teachers, uncles, or neighbors, dwindle down to zero.

    Man’s consciousness must evolve if there is any hope that the number of children whose childhoods are marred because of selfishness on the parents part, also dwindle down to zero….. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. -GhostRider Wisdom

    • TGO says:

      Well, you FINALLY got it; that I’m never incorrect that is! It took you long enough… You should have figured out a long, long time ago that skeptics are more intelligent, wiser, and that they (we) have more foresight than the average “Joe the plumber.”

      And by the way I’m in good company. Here are a few statements on skepticism from some noteworthy individuals throughout history:

      “Great intellects are skeptical.” Friedrich Nietzsche

      “We wish to find the truth, no matter where it lies. But to find the truth we need imagination and skepticism both. We will not be afraid to speculate, but we will be careful to distinguish speculation from fact.” Carl Edward Sagan

      “The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.” George Bernard Shaw

      “I do not believe what has been served for me to believe, I am a doubter, a questioner, a skeptic. However, when it can be proved to me that there is immortality, that there is “resurrection” beyond the gates of death, then I will believe. Until then, no.” Luther Burbank

      “Skepticism is the first step towards truth.” Denis Diderot

      “Skepticism is the highest duty and blind faith the one unpardonable sin.” Thomas Henry Huxley

      “The world would be astonished if it knew how great a proportion of its brightest ornaments, of those most distinguished even in popular estimation for wisdom and virtue, are complete skeptics in religion.” John Stuart Mill

      As for predictability… Let’s see now, is this coming from the guy who literally beats “lines” to a pulp, to the point of diarrhea?

      “That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.”

      “Judge me, see if I give a fuck.”

      I’ll have a _____ and foreplay.”

      “Consciousness,” “consciousness,” “consciousness,” “consciousness,” “consciousness,” “consciousness,” “consciousness,” “consciousness,” “consciousness,” “consciousness,” “consciousness.” I know you’re sometimes slow and always stubborn; do you get it now?

      Don’t ever let anyone tell you you’re predictable – now THAT is funny!

  3. GhostRider says:

    Of course I do, Silly, and It is precisely from looking in that mirror that I can, and do, say what I say.

    It is from looking in that mirror that I know that the culprit in ALL bad marriages, that the reason for ALL divorces, is selfishness.
    It is from looking in that mirror that I know words like, “…No Message Could Have
    Been Any Clearer, If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place, Take A Look At Yourself…” are as absolutely true as the temperature of Absolute Zero.
    It is from looking in that mirror that I see how words like, “…Who Am I, To Be Blind?
    Pretending Not To See…” manifest themselves into reality
    It is from looking in that mirror that I know when a man is, “Living in his own private Idaho”
    It is from looking in that mirror that I know man’s consciousness must evolve.

    -GhostRider Wisdom…that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

    • TGO says:

      Blah, blah, blah…

      As usual, your distorted brain distorted the point of the article; which had nothing to do with selfishness, bad marriages and/or divorce.

      But keep the comments coming, silly as they are, they’re good entertainment for illogical, like-minded individuals. And as always, the more I type, the more my typing skills improve.

  4. GhostRider says:

    Everything you say may be true, fine, and dandy, as for my small and tiny universe, as for my own Idaho, the kids in it are not getting sexually molested by priests but the kids that reside there ARE having to deal with the anxieties and all the rest of the emotional symptoms that come from the, oh so common, 60 percentile of the lives they have been plunged into by selfish parents, yours truly included, and just as that was in the parents hands, the manner in which those kids emerge from those plunges as the enter adulthood is also in parents hands.

    As for those bad marriages that lead to hostile environments, once again, the main culprit is selfishness and that leaves us exactly where we are – man’s consciousness must evolve. I leave you you the late great Michael Jackson and hopefully, not only will a priest with a fresh young piece on his mind, but some parent that is thinking of where to go for happy hour tomorrow after work – instead of home and the kids – will “hear” the message. -GhostRider Wisdom…that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

    • TGO says:

      As bad as being selfish and heading to “Happy Hour” instead of home after work is, and no doubt it is extremely selfish, it pales in comparison when compared with the physical and mental pain and anguish a child must experience while being sodomized and raped by a grown man; and by a priest no less. The same priest who shakes hands with the child’s parents after Sunday mass! Why you insist on comparing one to the other continues to portray your warped sense of “reason.”

      And yes, I’ve heard the song and seen the video of “Man in the Mirror” a hundred times… By the way, do you own a mirror?

  5. Pingback: Testimony Begins In Child Sex-Abuse Trial For Philadelphia Catholic Priests, Archdiocese | 2012: What's the 'real' truth?

  6. GhostRider says:

    And for those parents that really, really care, about your kids thanking you – and most parents don’t – in the years to come, keep in mind that the actual odds of having a child of yours sexually molested by a priest at the Catholic school he or she attends, as opposed to that same child experiencing the trials and tribulations brought on by mom and dad getting a divorce is, 9.99 to .01. The culprit in all divorces is selfishness. In other words parents, it is in your hands. -GhostRider Wisdom…that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

    • TGO says:

      Yes, it’s always in parents’ hands, but in terms of simple math, the odds of having a priest molest your child in a Catholic school or church is ZERO if your child never sets foot inside a Catholic school or church. And being that the divorce rate in this country is approaching 60%, I’d rather eliminate the odds that I can control altogether rather than those I cannot.

      And by the way, a bad marriage is much, much more traumatic to children than a divorce. Living in a hostile environment, day in and day out, is much more damaging to a child than a separation of the parents.

      And finally, you underestimate the number of children abused in Catholic schools and churches. The numbers during the last decade probably exceed 100,000! Of course, many of these are in countries such as Nigeria, the Philippines, eastern Europe and Central/South American where the Church is in bed with the government and abuses are widespread (and “taken care of” – when reported). But I suppose since these are not kids born or living in this country nobody cares about them, right? Well guess what, kids are kids, and they suffer the same physical and psychological abuses, regardless of where they live or come from. But hey, if you want to downplay the entire problem or simply spin it into your own psychological mumbo-jumbo; KNOCK YOURSELF OUT! But just remember, the Catholic Church has already paid BILLIONS, that’s millions with a ‘B’ (in this country alone) in child abuse settlements. Do you really believe that the Catholic Church is in the business of giving away money? No, just the opposite, they’re in the business of taking money. So… what does it say when the Catholic Church has paid BILLIONS to child abuse victims (in this country alone). Well, for one thing, it tells me that your math is quite distorted.

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