Church Critiques Just Like Pogroms

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

Speaking of the self-pity and tone-deafness of the Catholic hierarchy... Were we? Yes. Yes, we were. But Archbishop Gerhard Müller, the Vatican's head of doctrine, has broken my irony meter.

In an interview published Saturday by Germany newspaper Die Welt, Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Mueller likened the sentiment directed toward the Church to that of the pogroms against Jews in Europe.

Mueller, who leads the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was quoted as saying that those attacking the Church borrow arguments used by totalitarian ideologies such as Communism and Nazism against Christianity.

Let's see... A German representative of a Church that killed Jews during the Inquisition, collaborated with the Nazis, and that, in general, has a pretty terrible record of anti-Semitism, now equates the most powerful church in the world with persecuted Jews.

So, are Catholic clergy being dragged from their homes, beaten to death, starved, shot, gassed, or, say, turned into lampshades? Not last I heard. What has happened to these tragically oppressed victims? They've been criticized for protecting priests who've raped children. Oh the humanity!

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The Apologia of Cardinal Mahony

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

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This week the Los Angeles Diocese finally released all 30,000 abuse related files. They came with a very public censure of Cardinal Mahony by Archbishop Jose Gomez. And Cardinal Mahony took to his blog to defend his record with a rebuttal letter. It is a startlingly open conflict between two church officials.

Wrote Gomez:

I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil. There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children. The priests involved had the duty to be their spiritual fathers and they failed.

. . .

I cannot undo the failings of the past that we find in these pages. Reading these files, reflecting on the wounds that were caused, has been the saddest experience I've had since becoming your Archbishop in 2011.

My predecessor, retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, has expressed his sorrow for his failure to fully protect young people entrusted to his care. Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties. Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry has also publicly apologized for his decisions while serving as vicar for clergy. I have accepted his request to be relieved of his responsibility as the regional bishop of Santa Barbara. [emphasis added]

As discussed, the small percentage of these files released recently exposed a years long pattern of collusion between Mahony and Curry to protect abusive priests from prosecution and the Church from scandal at the expense of children's safety. While the dialogue is shocking, it is very much of a piece with revelations in numerous dioceses through the years.

After losing a long, drawn out legal battle to keep the files under seal, Mahony is now defending the record he and the archdiocese tried so hard to keep secret. His letter to Archbishop Gomez reads in part:

Nothing in my own background or education equipped me to deal with this grave problem. In two years [1962—1964] spent in graduate school earning a Master’s Degree in Social Work, no textbook and no lecture ever referred to the sexual abuse of children. While there was some information dealing with child neglect, sexual abuse was never discussed.

. . .

During these intervening years a small number of cases did arise. I sought advice from several other Bishops across the country, including Cardinal John O’Connor of New York, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago, and then Bishop Adam Maida of Green Bay. I consulted with our Episcopal Conference frequently. All the advice was to remove priests from active ministry if there was reasonable suspicion that abuse had occurred, and then refer them to one of the several residential treatment centers across the country for evaluation and recommendation.

This procedure was standard across the country for all Arch/Dioceses, for School Districts, for other Churches, and for all Youth Organizations that dealt with minors. We were never told that, in fact, following these procedures was not effective, and that perpetrators were incapable of being treated in such a way that they could safely pursue priestly ministry.

I wouldn't dispute that Mahony's social work education failed to prepare him for the issue of sex abuse. The field of psychology is still playing catch up when it comes to understanding the ramifications of sex abuse and how to treat both survivors and perpetrators. So I'm not without sympathy for the situation of a bishop like Mahony when confronted with a situation that was completely outside of his frame of reference. But his rendition skirts a number of salient points.

Both Mahony and Curry obviously knew the offending priests in their charge were committing crimes. We know they knew that because they went to great lengths to protect them from the authorities. According to their own words, they were sending the priests to out of state facilities less to help them heal than to avoid prosecution. They went out of their way to keep them away from local therapists who might have to comply with reporting laws, even going so far as to speculate that finding a therapist who was also a lawyer might be a way to protect counseling under privilege. So while Mahony may have been somewhat ignorant about the psychological ramifications, he was not ignorant of his obligations to the law and the public, and how to dodge both.

It's also untrue that Mahony had no idea that sex offenders couldn't be remediated. In at least one case, Mahony had been told by a treating physician to keep an abusive priest away from children. He failed to do so.

Mahony also does in this letter what every bit of apologia from Catholic officials can be counted on to do -- minimize the damage they've caused in the past while expressing dismay at the lack of credit for more recent improvements. He also takes several swipes at Gomez for not questioning the current policies as if the current policies were the issue.

Straw men, self-pity, self-righteousness, and incredible tone-deafness... Cardinal Mahony has the classic Catholic Church response down pat.

There is much about the situation in the Los Angeles Diocese that is unprecedented: the punitive stripping of duties, the senior status of the major players, the public conflict between the new archbishop and the former one. But, is it still just style over subtance?

Victims were quick to point out the contrast between Mahony's pared-down local standing and his continued position as a cardinal who travels frequently to Rome and remains in good standing there.

The decision "is little more than window dressing. Cardinal Mahony is still a very powerful prelate," Joelle Casteix, the Western regional director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said at a Friday news conference outside the Los Angeles cathedral. "He's a very powerful man in Rome and still a very powerful man in Los Angeles."

. . .

Mahony is a member of three Vatican departments, including the Holy See's all-important economic affairs office, and he remains a member of the College of Cardinals. At 76, he is still eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope.

Meanwhile, the Vatican has been incredibly tight-lipped about the whole situation. They have thus far refused to comment, and a spokesman for the Los Angeles Diocese claims they are unsure as to whether or not the pope even knows about it. But this is typical of Vatican priorities. As the National Catholic Reporter points out, priestly abuse still ranks far below a host of social issues on which the Church is determined to remain as regressive as possible.

It would be difficult to develop a script more revelatory of the confounding priorities of the Vatican than that contained in the news of recent days. Real scandal -- covering up the rape of children, compromising the church's reputation with bizarre behavior and sexual shenanigans by its priests -- is met with either silence from on high or unpersuasive explanations.

Meanwhile, advocates of open discussion about church teaching on women, celibacy, contraceptives and homosexuality -- advocates who have advanced questions, not scandal -- are met swiftly by the long arm of the law in the form of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

What the church finds deserving of its wrath in light of what it will tolerate to preserve the clerical culture and protect bishops is increasingly inexplicable to anyone outside that culture.

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Spiritual But Not Religious

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

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"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience." ~ Teilhard de Chardin

If it were up to me, I'd retire the phrase "spiritual but not religious." I consider it effectively meaningless. To my way of thinking, we can't not be spiritual. We are spirit. But I'm not being fair to the idiomatic meaning of that phrase, which could be more fairly stated as, "searching for meaning beyond the confines of organized religion."

However problematic the phrase, it is a growing trend. This seems to rankle a number of religious authorities. A quick search through the Huffington Post religion section brings up a fair sampling of disdainful diatribes against all these dilettantes who think they can have God without the hard work of religious practice in like-minded community. I read a number of these posts when they came out, sighed, and moved on.

There's Pastor Lillian Daniel who is sick and tired of hearing from anonymous strangers on planes,  that God can be found in sunsets. She just wishes the nonreligious would stop boring her with their irrelevant observations. And, no, I'm not overstating her tone. "Please stop boring me," is her subtitle.

There's Alan Miller's lightning rod of a post bemoaning the religious illiteracy of a populace that can't name more than four of the ten commandments. He casts religion almost entirely in Judeo-Christian terms and dismisses all else as superstition. A good rebuttal can be found here.



Most recently, I read this jeremiad from Michael P. Murphy of Loyola University. Murphy bemoans a religiously untethered generation that has filled that void with technology and begun worshiping at the altar of Steve Jobs by default. I agree with Murphy that we seem to be wired to seek out both communion with other human beings and an experience of the transcendent. But his post is a muddle. And it reeks of contempt for people who think they can find something better than church.

As I paused to watch devotees of Apple products engaging in communion with the items of their religious practice, I was struck once more not only by how religion and spirituality have reached an almost comic level of topsey-turveyness, but also with the stark recognition that Marshall McCluhan's prophetic insight from 1964 is made manifest every minute of of every day in the digital age: the medium has indeed become the message.

Murphy clearly knows nothing of McLuhan's work... or the spelling of his name, apparently. His attempt to posthumously enlist him, of all people, in his war with modernity is risible. McLuhan's famous statement wasn't meant as prophecy. He didn't say, the medium will become the message. He said it is. It always has been. The medium to which McLuhan referred wasn't some future vision of high tech. It was any technology -- any extension of our human capacities -- going back to the stone age. McLuhan's point was that the way information is conveyed is more important than the information itself, because the means of conveyance shapes both psyche and society. As we moved from the printed word, for instance, to film and television, we stopped thinking so linearly and began to take in multiple messages/images simultaneously. These newer media force us to develop new ways to prioritize and cognize that information. Information influences what we think. The medium influences how we think.

Murphy continues.

The word "religion" finds its root in religio, which means "to bind." And herein lies the main point: we like being "spiritual" because the concept, as we perceive it, makes no claim upon us. It binds us to nothing -- or at least nothing communal, confessional or public. Of course, it is liberating to be masters of our own faith practices. To be both founders and adherents of a "Sheila-ism" or a "Murph-ism" -- that is, to participate in the postmodern practice of inventing and practicing one's own hodge-podge religion -- is a uniquely empowering proposition. The problem is that it is also an isolating, atomizing and ultimately inauthentic approach to spirituality.

In fact, the etymology of the word religion is a matter of some dispute. But this is a small point. More concerning is the paternalism. Murphy seems certain that those who do not seek God through the proper channels of an organized religion cannot possibly find connection or meaning.

An assumption spans these various writings that those who define as spiritual but not religious are isolated in their experience and have no sense of community with which to share their spiritual discovery. Leave say, I have not found this to be true.

To Miller, where organized religion is real and diligent, other spiritual practices are entirely ephemeral.

Back to the Spiritual But Not Religious-ers, they seem to have appropriated the worst of all worlds. They have retained the superstitious outlook and yet do not want to engage or present anything more broadly life affirming. Selecting a superficial mixture of "nice-feeling" items from Yoga to a slice of Zen and a moment of Tao is hardly progressive as far as options for humanity is concerned. They have jettisoned the hard work, diligence and observation of organized religion for a me-me-me what-ever kind of lifestyle.

Far be it from me to claim that there aren't a fair number of dabblers in the new age marketplace and among those who define as spiritual but not religious. But we're kidding ourselves if we pretend that churches aren't also packed with people who leave their faith at the church door after Sunday services, that there are no hypocrites who give the tenets of their religions lip-service, or worse, that there aren't those who cherry-pick and twist scripture to justify whatever abuses against humanity they indulge.

I can agree that some problems arise when we have no shared, clear cosmology. I can also agree that there is a downside to a pluralism that allows people to pick and choose nothing but appetizers and desserts from an a la carte menu of world religions. Spiritual expansion requires grounding in the deeper lessons and safeguards that come by way of well-worn tradition. Where I disagree is in the assumption that shallow practice is inevitable among the nonreligious or that a prescriptivist approach to spiritual practice is the only possible corrective.

Absent in all these posts is any sense of the responsibility organized religions might have for their dwindling numbers. This is particularly galling coming from Murphy -- a professor of  Catholic Studies. Conspicuous by its absence is any discussion of the abuse scandal that has left large numbers of practicing Catholics disillusioned and demoralized. He dismisses all of it as "the troubles and intrigues that the Catholic 'brand' has experienced." But the extent to which the Church has broken faith with its followers has caused even Catholics in Ireland to abandon organized religion in droves.

Disillusionment has always been a driver, not only of religious attrition, but also of religious innovation. But it is not just the disappointment with the flaws and limitations of religious institutions. It is the thirst for the divine that often goes unsatisfied in hidebound institutions.

In so many instances, what drives people from their churches to the spiritual path less traveled is the beginnings of spiritual awakening. Organized religion has historically been suspicious, even condemning, of mystical experiences other than those of their founders and prophets -- especially if those experiences challenge orthodox beliefs. This leaves people who have their own brushes with the numinous, experience moments of conscious oneness with the all, or in any way begin to pierce the veil, at odds with their religious institutions.

Historically these spiritual quests have resulted in sectarian conflicts, new religions -- Buddhism springs to mind -- and more than a few have led to war and wide-scale persecution. Such things still happen in much of the world. So, perhaps, it's petty of me to worry about the carping of a few religion writers.

Here, in the West, the spiritual but not religious trend is just the newest wrinkle in a consciousness expansion that began in earnest when psychedelics and Eastern thought exploded in the popular culture.

Astrologer Adam Elenbaas describes the complexity of the search for spiritual truth in a pluralistic society with an ever-expanding panoply of traditions. Spiritual but not religious has become a kind of shorthand for an experience that doesn't fit neatly into any category.

I'm an astrologer so I can't help but approach the questions I ask or the concepts I'm interested in through the lens of the system I study. From the astrological perspective I think most new agers, including astrologers like myself, struggle to define a coherent belief system for ourselves because of the times we are living through: moving now from the age of Pisces to Aquarius. Are we "believers" in astrology? Can I call myself a Buddhists even though I might be a raw foodist who practices yoga, urban tantra, and gnostic Christianity in between Christian Santo Daime works? Maybe it's just become easier to answer, "I'm spiritual not religious." Maybe it's just a shorter way of saying, "I'm looking for oneness; whatever you call it it's all the same to me. I yearn for mystical fusion. I yearn to get out of this mundane world and go home once and for all!"

Elenbaas places the debate over spiritual and religious definition in the context of the Piscean age giving way to the age of Aquarius, and our thirst to dissolve into the numinous as a Piscean (Neptune) drive.

For example, this past Friday night I went to a Dharma talk at a local Buddhist temple. The female priest giving the talk was speaking about the fundamental premises of Buddhism, and she spoke about the reality of suffering as the base condition that inspires our path toward nirvana. She talked about crossing the ocean of suffering with single pointed focus. When I left the dharma talk I felt an emotional connection to something outside of myself for sure -- at least for the rest of the evening. But it wasn't what she had to say about suffering, necessarily. It was the people in their robes, and it was the crystals glowing behind carefully arranged lamps. It was the images and icons, the quietness as she spoke to the few of us gathered together. It was the way in which the temple was filled some other-worldly magic, and how I could literally feel the presence of Neptune, like a golden trident poking through the fabric of the "Buddhist" reality. And THAT was surreal. That felt sacred to me.

It's not the words, the philosophy... it's the potency of symbols, the irrationality of myth, the sensory and intangible, that tips us toward transcendence. As per "freelance monotheist" Karen Bishop, that is the purpose of religion. And it is precisely the common lack of that which has led so many to instead be spiritual but not religious.

"Matter is spirit moving slowly enough to be seen." ~ Teilhard de Chardin

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Cafe

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Around the Web, Around the World

"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Darkness Guides Us to the Light

Who will guide us as we stand together with new allies: The Unknown, The Wild Heart, and The Tao, at the dawning of the New World crafitng the new Story of the People? What lights the way? "In the end the light of the Old World was the harsh light of judgment, the blinding light of righteousness, and the relentless light of monotheistic separation that drives us from all that naturally nourishes and replenishes the body and soul," explains host and shaman, Christina Pratt. "We must now find our way in the darkness to rediscover True Light, the Light that dances in ecstatic reciprocity with Darkness and gives life." Join us this week as we explore ways to use shamanic skills to enter the Shadow and gain access to transform the roots of the habits, additions, and unconscious patterning that limit our self-expression. These skills allow us to enter the darkest fears human experience offers and to see through the illusions that bind our hearts in mental unwellness, confusion, and depression. Finally Darkness is the path to the deep actions of self-care and self-love necessary to cultivate the internal richness needed to bring up True Light and the courage to express that light with creativity and humility in the world.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Why Shamanism Now? on Co-Creator Network
Questions? Comments? Call: 1-512-772-1938

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Awake in the DREAM with Laura Eisenhower and Dr. DREAM

Stargates and the Judgement Day Device

William (www.williamhenry.net) is an investigative mythologist and author of more than 15 books and numerous DVD presentations. He is the host of Revelations radio, heard on www.unknowncountry.com, where he frequently interviews experts on the issues surrounding the stargates and ascension. William has a passion for finding amazing ancient art and symbolism, especially relating to human transformation, interpreting it in light of a higher consciousness, and sharing it. He is a regular contributor to Coast to Coast am with George Noory and the History Channel’s Ancient Aliens.

You may connect with, and find out more about William Henry at http://www.WilliamHenry.net

Tue, January 29, 2013 09:00 pm Eastern

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/drdream

Suzanne Toro

BeSimply...MatteoLundgren{CobbEarth&Perspective}

Join 'She' and Matteo as they dive into the inspiration found in building and living with the earth. Matteo shares his 300plus day study of cobb building and the opportunity there is to building in community and commune with mother earth to create our dwellings.

Connect with Matteo Peeling back the Onion

References| HouseAlive & Hand Sculpted House

Please send in your questions to s@suzannetoro.com or call in during the episode.

Wed, January 30, 2013 00:30 am Eastern

**********

BeSimply...LoveSelf {Re-Building the Foundation}

Join 'She' for 54 minutes to work on the inner self.

During this segment:...We will focus on our root. The foundation. 'She' will provide steps on how to remove co-dependency and align with self-reliance, regeneration and shoring up your foundation.

Guided Meditation, tools to assist you on your journey and support circle.

Attune, Align, and take a few steps FORWARD!

These segments are perfect for anyone walking through a life transition, disease, wanting to transform and authentically align the inner self.

Please send in your questions to s@suzannetoro.com or call in during the episode.

Sat, February 2, 2013 00:30 am Eastern

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Just Energy Radio

Shopping For The Paranormal

Jeromy Jones
Paranormal investigator, Jeromy Jones, designs and builds equipment for paranormal investigation. Founder of Paranologies, all of their custom equipment is built from from the ground up with only Paranormal Investigation in mind. Their equipment includes Modular line of IR and Full Spectrum Illuminator's and Camera's, GeoPods, ParaScope's, Phono-Pod's, Paramid's, Tri-Field Audio-Visual Recorder. More ...

David Sereda
David is co-founder of VOICE Entertainment, Director, Producer, filmmaker, photographer, author and public speaker. He is also a well known space scientist, physicist, ecologist and spiritual explorer. He has planted over 1.3 million trees in Canada, spoke in Congress for Clean Fusion Power in 1993, marketed sustainable housing, break throughs in oil spill clean-up, solar, wind and hydrogen technology. More ...

Dakara Kies
DaKara Kies is a gifted intuitive healer that specializes in clearing core issues and blocks that hold you back from stepping into your true power, passion and purpose. Working with the inner child to bless, heal and nurture that most sacred part of ourselves.  More ...

Thursday From 7-9pm CST ~ 01/31/13

http://inceptionradionetwork.com/listen-live/

Awake: Now What?

Gabriele Kohlieber, Emotion Code Practitioner, Reiki Master

Gabriele will spend some time assisting callers with the emotional healing code process.

It is Gabriele's basic philosophy to encourage others and to empower them through strengthening their energy, doing so achieves healing and well being!

Growing up in Germany she was always exposed to home remedies and when her daughter became allergic to western medicine she remembered her heritage and started to explore and become very interested in alternative ways to heal. This has led her to explore Reiki, The Reconnection, Matrix Energetics, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), Psych K and the Emotion Code. Gabriele also became a Certified Hypnotherapist with emphasis on Regression work. She studied past life regression with Dolores Cannon and is certified.

Studying her clients and research has brought her to believe that most illnesses are a result of trapped emotions and found Dr. Bradley Nelson’s work with the Emotion Code the most effective way to release these trapped emotions. This process is very effective in relieving physical pain and emotional discomforts. The Emotion Code also offers a way to release the Heart Wall which has been found in around 90% of the people she has worked with.

Gabriele has been a Reiki Master/teacher for over 10 years. Her mission is to empower her clients to be well and happy.

I am a Reiki Usui Master/Teacher, and Practitioner, a Certified Hypnoterapist, a Certified Quantum Healing Hypnosis Therapist (QHHT), a Matrix Energetics Practitioner Level II, a Reconnective Healing Practitioner Level III providing Reconnective Healing and The Reconnection ®, The Emotion Code, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), Pranic Healing and Psych-K®

For sessions please contact Gabriele@Energyhealingcenter.org or call 402 981-5689

For more information go to http://www.energyhealingcenter.org

Sun, February 3, 2013 06:00 pm Eastern

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/awake

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If I'm Not Free to Control You...

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

"Religion is a FREEDOM. Let's keep it that way." No duh, huh?

My mother was fond of saying, "Your freedom stops where the next person's begins." It was her paraphrase of an aphorism of uncertain origin. It always stuck with me as a statement of one of the most obvious elements of a free society. So, I have been brought up short by the roiling debate over freedom of religion in this country. Last year Catholic Bishops threw down the gauntlet over President Obama's access to birth control mandate, taking the position that anything that infringes on their right to impose their beliefs on people who do not share them is a violation of the First Amendment. It is a thoroughly nonsensical position.

Now comes survey data that shows that evangelical Christians, in large numbers, view any erosion of Judeo-Christian dominance of the country as a threat to religious freedom. (???) Oh... and it's all because of "the gays."

While these Christians are particularly concerned that religious freedoms are being eroded in this country, "they also want Judeo-Christians to dominate the culture," said Kinnamon.

"They cannot have it both ways," he said. "This does not mean putting Judeo-Christian values aside, but it will require a renegotiation of those values in the public square as America increasingly becomes a multi-faith nation."

. . .

Asked for their opinion as to why religious freedom is threatened, 97 percent of evangelicals agreed that "some groups have actively tried to move society away from traditional Christian values."

And 72 percent of evangelicals also agreed that gays and lesbians were the group "most active in trying to remove Christian values from the country." That compares to 31 percent of all adults who held this belief.

The whole thing just makes my brain hurt.

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New Investigation Into Warren Jeffs in Arizona

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

The legal troubles for Warren Jeffs have not ended just because he currently resides in a Texas prison -- and  probably will for the rest of his days. Texas moved recently to seize the Yearning for Zion Ranch because it was used as part of a criminal enterprise -- the systemic rape of underage girls. Now the state of Arizona is moving against Jeffs and his church.

Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne says there is an ongoing criminal investigation into a polygamous sect along the Utah-Arizona border.

. . .

A 26-year-old woman who claims Jeffs forced her into marriage at age 14 has now fled the group. She says she and her six children were held against their will for years.

Horne says her allegations of forced underage sex, among other things, are part of the ongoing case, but he declined to provide details.

The woman in question is Ruby Jessop -- sister of Flora Jessop, who left FLDS in 1986 and has been one of the sect's harshest critics. During his press conference, Horne announced that this 26 year old woman had recently won temporary custody of her six children after escaping from the Colorado City compound last year. He was flanked by the Jessop sisters and Ruby's six children. He explained Ruby's circumstances.

He said she was forced by Jeffs to marry her brother-in-law at the age of 14, and had since been virtually held captive in the town on the Utah-Arizona border, along with many other women who want to leave.

"What they do is say, `Everybody watch her so she won't run away.' Then she can't leave," Horne said. "Women who wanted to escape have been forcibly held by the marshals against their will."

Flora Jessop also spoke for her sister describing her years of sexual and mental abuse at the hands of her husband. Her six children, she explained, were held "hostage" after she fled the sect.

Horne's charges against the marshals appear to figure heavily in the case being built against FLDS. He explained that a criminal probe into the Marshal's Office serving Colorado City, AZ, and sister city Hilldale, UT, is currently underway. It is not his first attempt to shut them down. He recently pushed for legislation to close the office and put the area under the jurisdiction of the Mohave Police. It failed but he is still pressing for passage of that legislation.

An attorney for the Marshal's Office disputed the charges that they hold women and girls against their will, calling the DA's comments "inflammatory." A second attorney, Jeff Matura, claimed further that the Marshal's Office has a good working relationship with the Mohave Sheriff's Office. It is a claim that is flatly denied by Mohave County Sheriff Thomas Sheahan, who is assisting the prosecution.

He described authorities there as "security guards for the FLDS church."

"They are corrupt and work only for the FLDS and Warren Jeffs," Sheahan said.

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Los Angeles Bishops Conspired to Protect Abusers

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

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Well. I can see why the Catholic Church works so hard to conceal records of priestly sex abuse. When they come out, they're really damning. The latest case in point comes from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles where Cardinal Roger Mahony's written words have come back to haunt him.

Cardinal Mahony has issued a number of apologies concurrent with the rolling disclosure of sex abuse on his watch. His most recent mea culpa was issued yesterday as an avalanche of personnel files was released under court order. This follows the release of private letters detailing a deliberate cover-up.

Mahony assures us that he now comprehends the gravity of his failings and he's very, very sorry. Previously, he really did not understand the pain caused by sex abuse. He had his come to Jesus moment when he met with some ninety abuse survivors, over a three year period, and had to look them in the eye.

"Those visits were heart-wrenching experiences for me as I listened to the victims describe how they had their childhood and innocence stolen from them by clergy and by the Church," Mahony wrote, ending his statement, "I am sorry."

Now that he better understands, he says, he has the names of each of those survivors on note cards and prays for them daily. So that's nice.



In contrast, Mahony did seem to fully comprehend the pain the church would endure if these documented cases of abuse had come to light, so he conspired to conceal the facts from both law enforcement and parishioners. In the 1980s, then Archbishop Mahony and Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry coordinated efforts to send known abusers out of state for treatment in order to protect them from prosecution and the Church from the fallout of potential prosecutions. Legal counsel advised Mahony on the archdiocese's legal exposure and how to protect themselves. And one, lone aide, Msgr. Richard Loomis, acted as both conscience and Cassandra, warning of their culpability. Wrote Loomis:

"We've stepped back 20 years and are being driven by the need to cover-up and to keep the presbyteriate & public happily ignorant rather than the need to protect children," Loomis wrote.

"The only other option is to sit and wait until another victim comes forward. Then someone else will end up owning the archdiocese of Los Angeles. The liability issues involved aside, I think that course of complete (in)action would be immoral and unethical."

As has so often been the case, in shuffling pedophile priests out of their purview, the Los Angeles Archdiocese lost track of repeat offenders, putting countless children at risk. In one notable case, Mahony wrote to then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) that serial offender Rev. Lynn Caffoe was a "fugitive from justice." Caffoe, who had been caught holding boys against their will and videotaping their crotches, had been sent for therapy and removed from ministry, in the early 1990s, but no move was made to have him defrocked until 2004. His whereabouts had been unknown to the church for ten years. Mahony reported to Cardinal Ratzinger that they could find no death record, so Caffoe was presumably alive. Where, they had no idea. Caffoe was found by a reporter working in a homeless mission two blocks from an elementary school.

The lengths Mahony and Curry would go to to protect the archdiocese are highlighted in the case of  Msgr. Peter  Garcia. Garcia was an inherited problem, sent out of state for treatment by Mahony's predecessor. On the advice of counsel, Mahony asked the head of the treatment center in New Mexico to keep him there. "If Monsignor Garcia were to reappear here within the archdiocese, we might very well have some type of legal action filed in both the criminal and civil sectors," Mahony explained.

Bishop Curry's correspondence with Mahony fleshes out the problem.

The following year, in a letter to Mahony about bringing Garcia back to work in the archdiocese, Curry said he was worried that victims in Los Angeles might see the priest and call police.

"[T]here are numerous — maybe twenty — adolescents or young adults that Peter was involved with in a first degree felony manner. The possibility of one of these seeing him is simply too great," Curry wrote in May 1987.

Garcia, for his part, had assured the church hierarchy that prosecution was unlikely because he'd always targeted the undocumented and had in at least one case threatened a victim with deportation.

Only when Garcia insisted on returning to California, where he contacted a victim's mother to see if he could spend time with her younger son, did Mahony attempt to have him defrocked in 1989.

Garcia had admitted to psychologists that he'd enjoyed a long career of priestly abuse, going back to his ordination in 1966. He was never prosecuted.

Letters between Mahony and Curry reveal their explicit intent to keep confessed abusers from facing criminal charges. Their concern that therapists might have to report crimes caused them to send offenders out of state, rather than to therapists who might have to report. That was their standard operating procedure. Curry at one point speculated that they should try to find a psychiatrist/lawyer to assure that Father Michael Wempe, who'd admitted to sex with a 12 year old boy, was protected by privilege.

They also pointedly avoided alerting parishioners. Such was the case of Rev. Michael Baker whom Mahony did send for treatment. He had been returned to Mahony's care with a warning from a doctor, in 1987, that he be defrocked if he had contact with minors. Mahony took no such action until 2000, despite Baker's numerous interactions with children. But when it was suggested that they warn people about the ongoing problem, Mahony bridled.

"We could open up another firestorm — and it takes us years to recover from those," Mahony wrote in an Oct. 6, 2000, memo. "Is there no alternative to public announcements at all the Masses in 15 parishes??? Wow — that really scares the daylights out of me!!"

While much of this is shocking, it's not surprising. It's of a piece with what we already know about a long pattern of deliberate church cover-ups. But the documentation makes the truth inescapable.

This was not carelessness, sloppiness, or simple ignorance. These are not sins of omission. They were consciously committed by bishops who knew exactly what they were doing to protect themselves and the Church from consequence. And they are unlikely to ever be prosecuted because the statutes of limitations have largely run out.

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