LOS ANGELES (CA)
LifeSite
LOS ANGELES, October 13, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Yesterday, LifeSiteNews.com reported that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles released a document as an addition to its 2004 Report to the People of God. That “Addendum” included point-form information selectively gleaned from personnel files of 126 priests and according to the archdiocese’ website, an update of the list of priests against whom allegations of abuse have come to light since the original publication of the Report in February 2004.
The case of Fr. Michael Baker is being highlighted by most news sources as illustrative of the depths of the complicity of diocesan officials in shuffling known abusers from parish to parish. This pattern has been repeated in many US dioceses where abuse, overwhelmingly by homosexual priests preying on boys and adolescents, was systematically covered up by what many writers have identified as a homosexual subculture within the episcopate.
The document, however, may be more informative in what it declined to reveal. All the information is extremely terse, but in many cases, the records include only a list of transfers and appointments. Some contain no reference at all to any abuse allegations, courses of counseling or treatment, or legal proceedings.