Pedophiles and Such

By Guy Speckman
Savannah Reporter
September 13, 2012

http://www.thesavannahreporter.com/articles/2012/09/13/opinion/editorials/doc5052247b6a33f604642884.txt

A Ponder The Thought favorite topic was forefront in national news of late with the trial of Bishop Finn in Kansas City. Finn was the first American bishop criminally charged and convicted in a clergy sex abuse scandal for failing to report suspected child abuse. He was found guilty in a non-jury trial and given two years of probation that was suspended and will be wiped from his record if he adheres to a set of conditions that include abuse reporting training and other miniscule tasks.

That last paragraph makes me laugh a little. Can you believe that he is the first ever to be charged? Seems almost incredulous to me.

The important part of this story is that the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City - St. Joseph was also originally charged but those charges were dropped as part of Finn’s conviction. My initial reaction is what a joke! The tough talking prosecutors in Kansas City got weak kneed as they approached the finish line and the Catholic Church swept in with their money and bought one more fall guy in Bishop Finn.

I have a good Catholic friend who has devoted his life to teaching kids, much of it in Catholic schools. I respect him and his life’s work. Whenever I write about this he says that there are just as many pedophile newspaper publishers percentage wise in the country as there are priests by percentage. I don’t know if I agree with that, but assuming that to be true, it furthers my point in this case. The Catholic Church has spent over a hundred years moving priests from one community to another when these activities were discovered. Their only corrective action was to take a priest that had molested kids in one area of the country and move him to another area (sometimes only a few miles away), only to repeat the crime. I doubt the Missouri Press Association would cover up a pedophile publisher and ship some guy from St. Joseph to Montana.

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The Catholic Church has participated and been allowed by our government to be involved in the most heinous cover up in our lifetimes, with not a single legal consequence other than monetary penalty. I would argue that their activities and cover up for these pedophiles is worse than any mob family activity that has ever taken place. But, it’s a lot easier for government officials to infiltrate and bust an Italian mob family than it is to bust in the doors of the Church and that is a sad commentary on our society that touts separation of church and state.

Never a dull day at The Savannah Reporter. About once a month we get some anonymous correspondence. Usually someone with an ax to grind. Last week we got a package of “alleged” emails from 2006 between Savannah school employees that were at worst a fireable offense exchange between an employee and a subordinate and at best a “love story”. The package was allegedly also delivered to the Savannah School Board members.

Now we are not talking Penthouse forum type content, but an interesting view into a relationship and if actual emails written on school time and computers; a disconcerting use of taxpayers time and resources. The problem is that until people that distribute anonymous items such as this are willing to put their names on the story or at least verify their sources to us, they don’t go any further than our desk. We are not a detective agency, but we are more than willing to tell a story that is newsworthy and relevant to the community with relevant sources, but we need both sides of that story and until the people that send anonymous letters of complaint are willing to put their name on the dotted line, we are unwilling to print their view of the issue.

I am busy preparing for my overnight in the jail. I don’t intend on showering while incarcerated so those types of preparations can be skipped. My goal is to be the “Red” Redding character of the Andrew County jail. Redding was Morgan Freeman’s character in Shawshank Redemption. I’m not black or skinny and don’t have a good voice, but I could be the go to guy for other prisoners that have requests for things from the outside world.

For a pack of cigarettes, I can have wife Leslie smuggle in Dairy Queen cheeseburgers to those prisoners willing to pay. We will smuggle Savannah Reporters in to the masses, rock hammers and posters of Jessica Simpson (pre weight watchers). With the profits we will pay off the Andrew County deputies and arrange special conjugal visits and special perks for those prisoners willing to pay the price. We will arrange to tar the roof of the jail and the deputies will allow us to drink some Bud Light from our rooftop vantage point.

For those public officials that are willing to join my “gang” the night of incarceration, we will immediately hatch a break out plan that will rival Brian Springs in ingenuity. During our time inside the walls, we will rule with an iron fist. I am a little concerned with the capacity of the sewer lines in this part of town, so we will probably have to escape over the wall, rather than through the sewer.

Wife Leslie will stand outside the jail with camera in hand to get pictures of us “going over the wall”. We will forever be known as the “Break Out Kings”. We will write books and have fascinating trials and be on Nancy Grace and such. Once we are convicted, Savannah Reporter scribes Ryan Richardson and Duane Theis will do jailhouse interviews with us and we will be more famous than OJ and Andy Dufresne combined.

Who’s with me?

Guy Speckman can be reached at publisher@stjoelive.com or making contributions to the Catholic Church.