By: David Rice To: Shelby Sherman Re: Catholic child abuse by clergy #1 of 3 Also as it ha

By: David Rice
To: Shelby Sherman
Re: Catholic child abuse by clergy #1 of 3

Also as it happens, the religion with a PROVEN RECORD of child sexual
abuse by its officials is CHRISTIANITY, not Satanism. I am talking not
about mere allegations, but about PROSECUTIONS and CONVICTIONS - and
also about official policies to cover up such crimes when they have
occurred. To take just the Catholic Church as an example: In the
December 30/31, 1988 SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, court records and sworn
testimony in civil and criminal cases involving 35 priests in dioceses
across the U.S. over the past five years - most since 1985 - show that
in one or more cases Catholic Church officials have:

 * Ignored parental complaints that a child has been molested.

 * Failed to inform authorities, even though most states have laws
 requiring that such complaints be passed along to police or child
 welfare agencies.

 * Transferred the offending priest to another parish or other
 church-owned facility, such as a hospital or school, without
 warning parents in the new location of the trouble in the old
 parish, and often without even requiring the priest to stay away
 from children.

 * Refused to help priests who have asked for psychological help.

 * Attempted to discredit parents who complained, even when parish
 officials knew of earlier complaints against the priest in question.

 * Fought, usually with success, to make sure that the files in
 civil lawsuits against the church are sealed and that settlements
 remain secret even after the payment of millions of dollars in claims

 * Failed to seek out probable victims and declined to turn over
 files containing information about accusations of other
 molestations to attorneys suing the church.

Catholic Father Thomas Doyle, a Washington, D.C. priest and canon
lawyer who has looked into the issue of pedophiliac priests, told the
MERCURY NEWS he knows of about 200 Catholic priests who have molested
children in the past 4-5 years. He said that as many as 3,000 priests
could be pedophiles. F. Ray Mouton, a lawyer working with Doyle, added:

   I have consulted with dioceses and Catholic religious orders from
   every part of this country, and it is my impression that there is
   not one single, solitary bishop or vicar in this country who has
   not dealt with the problem of a pedophiliac priest under his
   supervision. Conservatively I would estimate that in the last
   several years, hundreds of priests and other clerics have been
   discovered as pedophiles, leaving a trail of thousands of
   Catholic child victims.

 * In 1986 priest Andrew Christian, Diocese of Orange, California
 received 5 years' probation on condition he go to a treatment
 facility after being found guilty of 26 counts of child
 molestation. The church never told authorities of abuse reported
 3 years earlier, when it sent Christian to counseling and did not
 remove him from supervising boys. When the counseling stopped,
 molestings began.

 * In 1986 priest William O'Connell, Diocese of Providence, Rhode
 Island was sentenced to 1 year in prison and 2 years in a
 treatment center after pleading no contest to 26 counts of
 sexually abusing 12 boys.

 * In 1985 priest Paul Leech, Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island
 was sentenced to 3 years in prison for molesting 3 boys.

 * In 1986 priest Timothy Slevin, Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.
 was sentenced to 3-12 years after pleading guilty to four counts
 of sodomizing a boy at Sacred Heart Catholic School. Slevin told
 police he sexually abused 6 other boys aged 10-16.
=================================================================

I can go on and on about Christians molesting children, but these
three messages are enough of a start. -- drice