BishopAccountability.org
	Is Archdiocese Serious about Rape/torture Cove By Randy Lobasso Philadelphia Weekly February 16, 2011 http://blogs.philadelphiaweekly.com/phillynow/2011/02/16/is-archdiocese-serious-about-rapetorture-coverup/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=is-archdiocese-serious-about-rapetorture-coverup Cardinal Justin Rigali released the following statement with regard to the recent revelations involving Philadelphia priests: "Many people of faith and in the community at large think that the Archdiocese does not understand the gravity of child sexual abuse. We do. The task before us now is to recognize where we have fallen short and to let our actions speak to our resolve." Rigali's calling this "child sexual abuse" as well as the numerous PR stunts that've happened only after the report was published is proof the Archdiocese doesn't understand or care to admit the gravity of these circumstances. What he and the rest are involved in is the controlled life-destroying rape and torture of children. There's no easier way to say it, but to see it illustrated is another issue. To quote directly from the first few pages of the Grand Jury Report: "While alone with [Billy, the pseudonym of a now-man involved in the lawsuit] in the sacristy, Father Charles Engelhardt began to show Billy pornographic magazines. Eventually, the priest directed Billy to take off his clothes, and to put his penis in the priest's mouth. Then the priest reversed positions, until he ejaculated on the boy. After that, Billy was in effect passed around to Engelhardt's colleagues." "[Teacher Bernard] Shero offered Billy a ride home, but instead stopped at a park, told Billy they were going to have some fun, took off the boy's clothes, orally and anally raped him, and then made him walk the rest of the way home…By high school [Billy] was taking pills, and then heroin." The report also talks about a boy named Mark who, after raped by James Brennan in 1996, attempted suicide. The Grand Jury found that the Archdiocese abuse system is designed to help the abusers and the archdiocese itself and "reaches the wrong result in the vast majority of (child sex abuse) cases." In addition, it was found that at least 37 priests with "substantial evidence of abuse" have been "kept in assignments that expose them to children." The Archdiocese "continues to engage in practices that mislead victims, that violate their trust, that hinder prosecution of their abusers and that leave large numbers of credibly accused priests in ministry" and as of the time of the report, still hadn't fully complied with the subpoena. The Inky's reporting the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has "pledged to immediately review the cases of dozens of other priests." But come on. Tiny tokens of PR and being forced to come to public terms don't help undo any of the countless cases of disabling torture cover-ups at the hands of the Catholic Church both in Philadelphia and elsewhere. It took the publicity of an almost 130-page report to begin such a process within a religion that, as put by Christopher Hitchens (and which I quoted Monday, though it deserves a restatement), "deals in awful certainties when it comes to outright condemnation of sins like divorce, abortion, contraception, and homosexuality between consenting adults. For these offenses there is no forgiveness, and moral absolutism is invoked. Yet let the subject be the rape and torture of defenseless children, and at once every kind of wiggle room and excuse-making is invoked."
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.