Michelle Obama Commission on Religious Child Abuse Is Now Urgent

By Jerry Slevin
Christian Catholicism
February 7, 2013

http://christiancatholicism.com/the-obama-commission-on-religious-child-abuse-is-now-urgent/

[Click here for the petition.]

Two events within the last few months confirmed conclusively that local law enforcement in the USA cannot prevent Catholic Church leaders from facilitating predatory priests who sexually abuse children. Documents just released in Los Angeles and others released in Philadelphia a few months earlier show this. Two Cardinals, Mahony and Bevilacqua, oversaw numerous predatory priests who were enabled to continue to abuse children repeatedly even after the Cardinals knew the priests were predators.

It is the same old story that played out with Cardinal Law in Boston a decade before and in many other U.S. dioceses since, up to the present. Local prosecutors beholden to the political clout of local Cardinals and Bishops apparently looked the other way for decades. As a retired international lawyer and lifelong practicing Catholic, I am convinced these outrages will continue until the Federal government steps up. No one else has the clout to stand up to the power of the Vatican.

Many have already signed a petition calling on President Obama to step up. More signatures are needed and will help. Please take a minute and sign it at: http://www.change.org/petitions/president-obama-investigate-child-sexual-abuse-by-priests-rabbis-religious-leaders

President Obama should consider appointing First Lady Michelle Obama to chair the new Obama commission. She is well respected as a Harvard lawyer and devoted mother. He growing children now need less of her time. She would be an ideal choice with her established credibility if she were willing to accept the appointment.

Michelle could consult with another former practicing lawyer, Julia Gillard, Australia’s Prime Minister, who just established a national investigation commission that already has the Catholic hierarchy and the Vatican running for cover.

If Michelle manages this, President Obama would be able to focus on his many other priorities, including resisting the Pope’s and his plutocratic Republican contributors’ unrelenting and opportunistic efforts to derail Obamacare over contraception insurance and immigration reform over gay marriage.

For more analysis of the powerful political influence of the Catholic hierarchy operating here, please see my remarks at http://wp.me/P2YEZ3-lN