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Catholic Diocese releases 10,000 pages of documents in abuse cases

Discussion in 'General political debates' started by punkmar77, Oct 25, 2010.

  1. punkmar77

    punkmar77 Experienced Member Uploader Experienced member


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    Nov 13, 2009
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    re-posted from: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010 ... documents/

    Documents from Catholic Diocese detail problem priests
    Attorneys for abuse victims say the diocese is still holding back 2,000 pages

    By Greg Moran

    Originally published October 24, 2010 at 4:11 p.m., updated October 24, 2010 at 9:31 p.m.


    Three years after the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego settled scores of claims of sexual abuse by its priests, lawyers for the plaintiffs released thousands of documents Sunday from church files showing diocese officials quietly moved some problem priests from parish to parish.

    The documents are from the personnel files of 48 priests who were convicted of sexual abuse, had credible accusations made against them or were named in civil suits. Their release is part of a landmark, $200 million settlement between the diocese and the victims that was made in 2007.

    A key part of that settlement for the victims was an agreement that priests’ personnel files would be made public after review by a judge to determine what could be released and what would remain private.

    On Friday, retired San Diego Superior Court Judge William Pate signed an order releasing an estimated 10,000 pages of records.

    “This is a major victory and a historic moment for the victims” said Irwin Zalkin, who represented many of the 144 people who sued the diocese for sexual abuse that had occurred sometimes decades earlier.

    Zalkin said both sides continue to argue about whether an additional 2,000 pages of records should be made public.

    The documents released Sunday go back to the 1950s and show that the diocese was aware of complaints against some priests but continued to assign them to parishes. Mostly, however, the documents contain records detailing the more mundane elements of serving the faithful — everything from paying bills to, in one priest’s case, being criticized by church leaders for having hair too long and sporting “hippie” sideburns.

    They also contain darker passages. The files concerning Anthony Rodrigue, a defrocked priest who admitted molesting children and was eventually convicted and served time in prison, show that the diocese kept assigning him to parishes despite complaints against him for almost a decade. He was forced to retire in 1982.

    A message seeking comment on the documents release left with the diocese chancery headquarters on Sunday was not returned.

    Most of the files deal with priests who are no longer serving as Roman Catholic clergy. Zalkin said that at least one, Gustavo Benson, is serving in Mexico, but that could not be confirmed.

    In Rodrigue’s case, a psychiatric report from 1989 — after he was retired from priestly duties — said that when he served at Our lady of Guadalupe parish in El Centro in the 1970s, he had “further difficulties with minors.”

    The diocese sent him for treatment to Massachusetts , then reassigned top St. George’s Church in Ontario in San Bernardino County. San Bernardino County at the time was under the jurisdiction of the San Diego Diocese.

    At St. George’s, Rodrigue “experienced further sexual problems” and sought treatment from a psychiatrist.

    In another case, a priest named Luis De Francisco was apparently spirited out of the country in the wake of allegations of abuse and an arrest by police in 1963. Letters from then Bishop Charles F. Buddy reference how de Francisco had been the subject of complaints from parishioners at three separate churches for “association with their children.”

    After his arrest in August of that year, Buddy wrote that the diocese arranged with the “civil authorities in San Diego” that charges would be dropped if de Francisco agreed to leave the country voluntarily and vowed never to return.

    “This agreement was carried through,” Buddy wrote to the bishop of Cali, Colombia , where de Francisco was from. Buddy said the priest was taken to the international border and released into Tijuana.

    :ecouteurs: :ecouteurs: :ecouteurs:
     

  2. KAAOS-82

    KAAOS-82 Experienced Member Uploader Experienced member Forum Member


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    I find it disgusting they say things such as: “experienced further sexual problems” as if it somehow legitimises it...
    Good post mate
     
  3. vAsSiLy77

    vAsSiLy77 Experienced Member Uploader Experienced member Forum Member


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    This summer we had some more of this .... (can't find a word for it) stuff in gurmoney and austria, years of organized abuse in jesuit-schools and internats, barely covered up by the catholic officials up to the pope with lots of nauseous excuses after the coverup failed.
    At the time the pope visited bonnie england the public dismay reached it's top, some of the british wanted to see the pope arrested for hushing up the crimes of his fellow priests, too bad they didn't succeed.
    Yes, and even more disgusting is the impression, that the whole organisation is becoming a catchment basin for weirdos bouncing between the "safe heaven" of the church's morals and the "temptations of youth" in the catholic engagement in official youth and education work.
    We have strict separation of church and state in gurmony and austria, but the important proportion of the church in welfare and education work seems like a playground for those criminal weirdos - nowhere else happened that many "incidents" - and we have only less than a half of the us-population.
     
  4. vAsSiLy77

    vAsSiLy77 Experienced Member Uploader Experienced member Forum Member


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    Code:
    After his arrest in August of that year, Buddy wrote that the diocese arranged with the “civil authorities in San Diego” that charges would be dropped if de Francisco agreed to leave the country voluntarily and vowed never to return.
    question here: so there is no duty of the criminal prosecutor's offices to prosecute crimes against the public (abuse, rape ect.) if the offender is leaving through the backdoor? :o
     
  5. punkmar77

    punkmar77 Experienced Member Uploader Experienced member


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    Not to mention lil' that why does Tijuana or Mexico have to pay for Pedophilia Catholicism, I just found out last night that the piece of shit priest Gustavo Benson is in Ensenada (60 miles south of Tijuana) which is where my little 10 year old brother lives and is still serving the church. Just disgusting and outrageous. He'd better not be there when I am finally allowed to cross the border again in April.
     
  6. vAsSiLy77

    vAsSiLy77 Experienced Member Uploader Experienced member Forum Member


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    So let's hope the lad is ok and already on the way to a healthy atheism, I don't know who I would do - but in gurmoney gustavo benson wouldn't be able to get away that easy, the criminal prosecutors here would be forced to bring up a charge against him, so he would have been sentenced - in worst cases up to preventive detention - which can turn out to be a open-end-life sentence, but I guess there are "deals" between the church and the state too - un-official.
    But one of the basics of penal law here is "public interest" - society and people have a right to be protected against crime - I'm no friend of imprisonment ect., but this kind of weirdo must be kept isolated, even if most of them were victims themselves in their childhood - if this is true, the circle must be broken by any means avaliable.
    Yes, and this would mean to close down catholic schools and internats and a withdrawal from the youth work too, if the church can't guarantee for their priests - out with them! :ecouteurs:
     
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