Blessed Pope John Paul II



Pope John Paul II celebrates Mass, You-Know-Who looks on.

 Yeah, this one gets me. 

How is it that the Vatican rationalizes Beatifying Pope John Paul II?  

Oh, I understand why it's politically correct and popular to move him towards sainthood, but is it appropriate? This is the Pope that reigned from 1978 through 2005, the second longest serving pope.  This is the Pope that presided over the Church's policy of willful blindness to clerical sex abuse and worse vilification of the victims.  This charismatic world figure, capable of so much good and positive, even world-changing presided over the Church that covered up sex crimes against children.

The satirical website, the Onion suggest that Pope John Paul II become the Patron Saint of Ignoring a Problem Until You Die.  Yep.

The San Diego Catholic Diocese Document Dump

At this link you can read comprehensive documents about the pedophile preists of San Diego, California.  The documents were released in the wake of the 2007 financial settlement reached with victims. 

Remember that those of us who brought these lawsuits were telling you the truth.  It's what allows me to hold my head up.

Christopher Hitchens Calls for Earthly Justice

Christopher Hitchens writing at Slate calls for Earthly justice on the Catholic Church.  In a scathing essay Hitchens persuasively makes the case. 

In my opinion, Hitchens is underestimates and understates the factual culpability of the Church worldwide in the systematic sexual abuse of children, moral injury to all their congregants especially families, and the subsequent deliberate cover up.

Master Manipulator And His Enablers

Reporter Kimball Perry at the Cincinnati Enquirer relates the story (at the link you can watch a video of the sentencing) of the local Catholic School teacher who moved a vulnerable kid into his home and convinced her that they were married so he could rape her, repeatedly. I pass along this story, because it catches perfectly the master manipulator/pedophiles I have known, deposed, or been related to; including my father:

"The 13th of every month was the anniversary 51-year-old Salvatore 'Sam' Magro (pic, left) and his bride celebrated with outings to Mount Echo Park to renew their vows. After Magro knelt on his Delhi Township deck and proposed, the couple picked out their wedding rings then got married on the same night the bride’s older sister was wed. They lived together and had sex often. The bride skipped her prom so Magro could take her to a nice dinner.

The 'bride' was 14.

The groom, a religion teacher at Our Lady of Victory School from 2000 to 2008, was sent to prison Thursday for four years by Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge John 'Skip' West.  The girl, now 15, stood by her lawyer who read a letter she wrote about the treatment she received from a man who was like a father to her.

'I feel kind of dirty and used,' the letter noted.

Magro and his wife took the girl into their home at the beginning of the 2009-10 school year because the teen's mother cares for her four children and a grandchild, was separated, was facing surgery and couldn't properly care for the family. Jennifer Magro previously was the girl's teacher.

Quickly, Magro convinced the girl they were married and they began having sex.

'He told me that he did not love his wife and he loved me,' the girl wrote in her letter. 'It made so much sense at the time but now it makes no sense.'

Magro pleaded guilty in June to three counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor in exchange for three other charges being dropped. The charges carried a maximum prison sentence of 15 years but Jack Rubenstein, Magro’s attorney, told the judge probation and intensive counseling would be more appropriate.

The girl’s family sued Magro and his wife, saying the wife’s habitual heavy drinking resulted her in passing out each night, allowing Magro and the teen to have sex. But it was revealed in court Thursday that Magro told officials he drugged his wife, making her sleep so he could have sex with the girl. Magro’s wife kicked the girl out and Magro went with her, first to a hotel for a few days and then back to the girl’s home where the sexual relationship continued.

Magro told the judge Thursday he regretted the relationship for the damage it did to the girl and his family but also to him. He no longer can teach, has lost his home and shattered his relationships with his wife of 29 years and family.

'I have lost everything that I spent a lifetime building,' a chocked-up Magro said.

Magro’s legal wife, Jennifer, asked the judge not to send her husband, who had a stroke last year, to prison, admitting 'he is indeed guilty of heinous behavior … in such a ridiculous relationship.'

Mary Sweeney, who worked with Magro when both taught at the Delhi Township school, called Magro 'a good role model for the children. The Sam that I taught with was just an honorable man,' Sweeney said."
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The defendant is a maggot.  The adults who scare me are the "legal wife" and the co-worker, who characterized him as a "good role model for children."  It's the latter attitude that permeated the Catholic hierarchy when they first were confronted with the cases of clergy sex abuse.  This is astounding stupidity and misplaced values, and it cost the Church its authority.

Kiddie Porn Arrest of LaCrosse Diocese (Wisconsin) Priest, And a Comment on The Vatican's New Sex Abuse Policy

The Bad Lawyer has marshaled over the last year lots of anecdotal evidence of the widespread "appeal" of kiddie porn in an effort to make the point that this crime is not limited to someones creepy hillbilly uncle Fred.  Here on Bad Lawyer we've seen the arrest ad prosecution of persons from all social classes and all occupations including lawyers, judges, law enforcement, social workers and physicians.

This story at TwinCities.com about Father Patrick A. Umberger a LaCrosse, Wisconisn priest is a slightly more disturbing report, and not because Umberger's a priest.  He is also the webmaster of the Diocese of LaCrosse, Wisconsin!  This is from Todd Richmond's account:

The Rev. Patrick A. Umberger, the Diocese of La Crosse's webmaster, faces one felony count punishable by up to $100,000 in fines and 25 years in prison. Among several images of children that state department of justice agents discovered on Umberger's computer were three photographs depicting boys and possibly a girl in sexual positions, according to the complaint.  Umberger, 59, has served as pastor at St. Patrick's Parish in Onalaska since 2005. He also teaches at the parish's school and serves as chaplain at Aquinas Middle School in La Crosse, according to his website.

The Diocese of La Crosse has stripped Umberger of his duties 'to protect all parties involved,' according to a Thursday statement from diocese attorney James Birnbaum. However, the diocese cautioned the move should not be taken as a sign of Umberger's guilt or innocence.   Umberger, who was arrested Wednesday, was released Thursday on a $10,000 signature bond and ordered not to have contact with children or use a computer. Online court filings did not list a personal defense attorney.

The case against Umberger began when police received a report that he had been acting 'suspiciously' at a Lake Delton water park in July 2009, according to the criminal complaint. A family had told Noah's Ark Water Park employees that Umberger was sitting near a kiddie pool and following boys into the men's restroom, and the employees called police, according to a Lake Delton Police report. Umberger told an officer he had a season pass and was near the restrooms because he had prostate problems and had to urinate often, the report said.

The officer told Umberger that park officials had revoked his season pass and drove him to his car. The officer noted she questioned Umberger for an hour and he never had to use the restroom. Noah's Ark Operations Manager Justin Strayer said in a statement Thursday that Umberger remains on the park's watch list.

Lake Delton officers shared the report with police in Onalaska, who discovered Umberger had a website as well as a Facebook account that listed many young boys as friends. Onalaska police turned the case over to the state Justice Department.  During an interview with a justice department agent Wednesday, Umberger denied any inappropriate sexual contact with children during his 30 years as a priest and said nothing inappropriate happened at the water park, according to the criminal complaint.

Umberger allegedly told the agent, however, that he found people could become sexually attracted to him when they were 12 or 13 years old and he was attracted to boys between the ages of 12 and 15 or older. Former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland ordained Umberger in 1980. Weakland resigned as archbishop in 2002 after admitting the archdiocese secretly paid $450,000 to a man who accused Weakland of sexual abuse.

Umberger served multiple stints around central and western Wisconsin, including stops at parishes in Arcadia, La Crosse, Mauston, Wonewoc and Elroy. He describes himself on his website as a self-taught computer user, saying he bought his first computer in 1984 through the mail and never has had a computer class of any kind.

In August 2005 then-Bishop Jerome Listecki, now the archbishop of Milwaukee, named Umberger webmaster for the Diocese of La Crosse and the following year he was named to a committee to select software for the diocese.

Jessica Kircher — an associate of Birnbaum, the diocese attorney — said in an e-mail to the Associated Press that the diocese was not aware of Umberger's alleged inappropriate computer use. Milwaukee Archdiocese spokeswoman Gillian Lester-George said in an e-mail that Listecki was "surprised and saddened" to hear about Umberger's arrest.  'Archbishop Listecki had no previous indication that there were any potential issues that would have prevented Fr. Pat from serving in public ministry,' Lester-George wrote."
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Sometimes perpetrators of these crimes explain themselves, Father Umberger seems to be willing to own what's obvious, he was "attracted" to young boys and was "aroused" by images of these children. 

Here we have the conundrum for my Church which has once again expressed its will that priest be celibate and that the ordination of women is a "grave" crime.  Don't get the connection?  The Catholic Church does that's why it reiterated these ideas as part of it's new expression of policies relating to child sex abuse by clergy. 

My Church is hip to the digital world, but continues to demand that the faithful embrace its fantastic delusion that the sexuality in the male human beings that are its priests can be sublimated to make them more perfect representatives of Jesus Christ on earth.  This, sadly, continues the willful blindness and stupidity by the pathetic old men in the Vatican, and their zealous defenders in the incredibly shrinking world of Catholicism in America and around the world.

Father Sam Ciccolini aka Daddy Bigbucks!

Rick Armon and Collette Jenkins at Ohio.com (the website of the Pulitzer Prize winning Akron Beacon Journal) are reporting on the Roman Catholic priest who appears to have been involved in some big buck shenanigans.  This is pretty amazing particularly when you consider the comments of Brother Tito in reponse to the Depose the Pope post, here on Bad Lawyer just the other night.  Brother Tito wanted to know if I had asked the local priest about how much money he possessed.  I confess I did not, and I further confess that Father Ciccolini is not my priest, but this is an eyes-wide-open moment! 

This is the Armon/Jenkins' story:

"A Roman Catholic priest who has earned international accolades for helping alcoholics and drug addicts was charged Tuesday with evading federal banking requirements and filing a false tax return.  The Rev. Samuel R. Ciccolini (pic), 68, better known as 'Father Sam,' is accused of depositing more than $1 million in bank branches in the Akron area from April to June 2003 by making 139 individual cash transactions, federal authorities say.

Banks are required to report deposits of more than $10,000 to federal authorities under the Bank Secrecy Act, which is designed to catch money laundering. Authorities contend Ciccolini deposited lower amounts so as not to trigger the reporting requirement.  Ciccolini, who founded and serves as executive director of the Interval Brotherhood Home in Coventry Township, also is accused of filing a tax return in 2004 claiming his income for the previous year was $101,064 when it was $407,062, according to the charge filed in federal court in Akron.

U.S. Assistant Attorney Robert Bulford would not comment on why Ciccolini would want to evade the reporting requirement or where he got more than $1 million. Ciccolini is charged with one count of structuring financial transactions to evade reporting requirements and one count of making and subscribing a false tax return.Ciccolini, whose residence is at Immaculate Conception church in the Kenmore area of Akron, could not be reached for comment.

Ed Stanford, assistant director of administration and finance at the Interval Brotherhood Home, said Ciccolini was on a retreat and won't return until next week. ''He takes a few days, sparingly, to reflect and meditate,'' Stanford said. Attorney Peter Cahoon, of Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs, who is representing Ciccolini with attorney Gregory Plesich, declined to comment. He said he expects a court date to be set within the next two weeks.

Ciccolini built an international reputation for his outreach and treatment of alcoholics and drug addicts at the Interval Brotherhood Home, just south of Akron. He founded the facility on Oct. 7, 1970, in an abandoned Carmelite monastery and has served as executive director ever since.  The Catholic Diocese of Cleveland priest was ordained in 1969. Before founding the Interval Brotherhood Home, he served in three local parishes: Queen of Heaven in Green and St. Paul and St. Anthony of Padua, both in Akron. Diocesan officials declined to comment, saying they had no knowledge of the charges.
Friends and colleagues reacted in disbelief to the charges against Ciccolini, saying he is a man with a flawless reputation. ''Father Sam has impeccable credentials and incredible integrity. Whatever questions there are, there must be plausible and appropriate explanations,' said Tom Allio, retired executive director of the Catholic Commission of Summit County. 'I've known Father Sam for 40 years, and I would follow him anywhere.'

Ron Tedeschi, a member of the Interval Brotherhood Home board of trustees, was shocked to hear of the charges. The Granger Township resident is also a member of the Browns Backers of Akron, a group that has raised tens of thousands of dollars for Interval Brotherhood Home over the years.'I don't think there's a dishonest bone in his body — and the people around me would vouch for him. He's just such a kind man. He's always been up and up on everything as far as I'm concerned,' Tedeschi said. 'I'd have to see how this all comes out before I'd ever believe something like that. . . . [T]here would probably be a line from the courthouse to Medina of people vouching for him.'

Tom Killian, another trustee and local attorney, said audits of the nonprofit organization show no indication of any misuse of funds.  In 2000, Ciccolini was honored by Pope John Paul II for his work and concelebrated Mass with the pope in the pontiff's private chapel in the Vatican. A 2005 profile in the Beacon Journal described him as 'a salesman of compassion and treatment for those who self-destruct through drink and drugs.' Those interviewed called him a powerful fundraiser and promoter for the nonprofit group, which had helped more than 15,000 men and women at that time.

In 2008, Ciccolini was paid $99,615 by Interval Brotherhood Home and another $83,414 by the I.B.H. Foundation Inc., according to the federal tax records.  The structuring and tax return charges carry potential penalties of up to five years and three years in prison, respectively. They also carry a potential fine of $250,000."
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I'm just speculating, but my guess is that Father Sam may be involved in laundering some money for others.  Perhaps Father Ciccolini rationalizes that in doing these small favors for friends he can do well for others?  Then again, I am purely speculating, he may well be innocent.  Lots of money under his name in Ohio Banks?  Maybe American Catholic and Brother Tito can sort it out for us?

Holy Smoke!

Depose the Pope!

Let's see it was all of June 28th that I predicted that in the wake of the Supreme Court's refusal to hear the Vatican's appeal in Doe v. Holy See that Jeff Anderson would seek to depose the Pope, over the weekend the LA Times reported that Jeff Anderson has announced that at the first opportunity he will seek to depose, Guess Who? 

Under the caption, Pope Benedict to be Deposed, the American Catholic reports:

"The most evil inspired man in the world, attorney Jeffrey Anderson, plans to 'sue the sh-t out of [the Catholic Church] everywhere'. Because the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from the Vatican, a court case will move forward allowing for the Vatican to be sued.


'I have known for 25 years that all roads lead to Rome,' said Jeff Anderson, the Minnesota attorney who represents the plaintiff. 'This is the beginning for us of a new journey, a uniquely difficult odyssey.'Anderson, who has represented hundreds of abuse victims and has tried for years to sue the Vatican, said he hoped to persuade a judge that he should be allowed to depose Vatican officials.

Jeffrey Lena, the American attorney for the Holy See, argued the Vatican is not responsible for individual priests in dioceses, saying the existence of the priest in the case 'was unknown to the Holy See until after all the events in question.'

The original lawsuit, John V. Doe v. Holy See, was filed in 2002 by a Seattle-area man who said the Rev. Andrew Ronan repeatedly molested him in the late 1960s.

'The Holy See does not pay the salary of the priest, or benefits of the priest, or exercise day-to-day control over the priest, and any of the other factors indicating the presence of an employment relationship,' Lena said.

Saint Paul, Minnesota attorney Jeffrey Anderson also added that he will depose Pope Benedict once the opportunity presents itself."
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Shows precisely where the editors of American Catholic come down on values. It's not the sexual predators, it's an American civil lawyer who has spent the better part of his working life holding sexual predators accountable that is "the most evil inspired man in the world."  You would have thought maybe Adolph Hitler or Pol Pot would have headed the list before Jeffrey Anderson.

Jeffrey Anderson slept in my house, and borrowed some of my athletic clothes to go for a run--not once did I denote any sign of evil.  In fact the garment that he borrowed laundered up, real nice without any sign of Satanic staining. 

In all seriousness, Jeffrey Anderson is a fine lawyer and a great man.  I hope he accomplishes the goal of deposing the Pope Benedict, and that henceforth, the Church remembers that it can not without consequence enable then turn a blind eye to child sex abuse by priests. 

Arrest the Pope, Try Him in the Hague?

At the end of March Bad Lawyer asked whether Pope Bendict XVI should be arrested and prosecuted at the International Criminal Court of Justice.  Since that time (certainly not in response to anything said on this blawg), a chorus of voices have risen seriously arguing for and against just such a process.  The Sunday New York Times featured another brilliant column by Maureen Dowd on the subject. Separately, Geoffrey Robertson, QC at the International Court of Criminal Justice writing at the Daily Beast has penned a powerful polemic making this case and dismissing the Pope's apologists and their arguments that as head of state of the Vatican the Pope is "immune," from international justice.

Almost from the beginning of the Father Porter era circa 1992, in Boston--I have argued that if the leadership of your public schools (or your hospitals, corporations, Boy Scouts) had been caught molesting and covering up sex crimes against children, heads would roll, perpetrators would be prosecuted and administrators at the top would be in jail.   That is what we have worldwide with the Catholic Church, and we now have striking evidence that Pope John Paul II's own "rottweiler" the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger who was so obsessed with doctrinal purity that no deviation from orthodoxy went unprosecuted--recklessly and foolishly enabled priest sex abuse in Germany and throughout the Church worldwide.

The most repulsive defender of the Church in the face of every wave of the scandal is William Donohue of the Catholic League.  Donohue is one of these flacks like Wayne LaPierre of the NRA (who in the face of every school massacre is trotted out to defend the 2d amendment right to bear arms;--Saddam Hussein had a guy like this too, who was all over Cable News proclaiming the glorious triumphs of Saddam's forces, literally as US tanks were rolling into Baghdad, these are the type of people) who will say ANYTHING logical or not.  Donohue is the Church's media barking dog sent out to defend the Pope and the Vatican leadership.

Ever since Judge Murphy's commission in Ireland, Donohue who is a sociology professor and a Heritage Foundation member, has been on all the cable channels.  Donohue's spurious defense advanced on Larry King Live is that seductive "post-pubescent" homosexuals are the cause of the Church's miseries (watch Sinead O'Connor humiliate this ass--with an honest question.)  Leaving aside the absurdity of this claim, and Donohue's fuzzy notion of what is a "post-pubescent," this argument was advanced fifteen years ago when Church leaders were saying the permissive and homosexuals in the US were the reason behind the spate of revelations that were then coming to light. Yeah, here, in America we have kinky swinging homosexual priests and altar boys unlike the conservative and pious parishes all over the rest of Christendom.

The new argument which is as offensive as this "horny post pubescent homosexual"-rant, is that Catholics are being treated like jews during the years leading up to the holocaust!  Dowd disposes of this dissimulation, I don't need to.

If Benedict XVI truly wanted to change the Church, he could.  He could confess its crimes against children and families, he could throw open the secret archival files maintained on molesting priests and he could begin the Church anew.  This would require a paradigm shift in the Church's relationship with the faithful, and a genuine transcendence and a TRANSFORMATION.  Like Jesus Christ, a crucifixion and a resurrection--there is precedent.

Faith

The Bad Lawyer is a Roman Catholic, as I've said previously.  I am a believer.  I am a practicing Catholic which is not to say that I see my church and it's leadership as temporally infallible

When I learned in the 1980s, that priests abused children (even here in OurTown) I was shocked and horrified.  My career, to the extent it meant anything has been a cry of outrage over these crimes.  When I discovered that my church systematically obstructed justice, covered-up the crimes, and lied about it--I was furious.  The problem is, the situation has not improved and the news from Ireland and Germany means that the claims made by church apologists back in the late 1990s and early 2000s to the effect that the child sex abuse was uniquely an American problem is a big lie.  Just one of many that Chruch leadership have advanced in the wake of wave after wave of discovery. 

The current claim is that the Church's tradition of Celibacy plays no role in the abuse of children--this is patently ridiculous.  While Celibacy does not cause child abuse, men who seek the vocation of priest and who are willing to become celebate are often deeply sexually and emotionally immature individuals who are repressing natural sexual impulses that manifest in destructive and harmful behaviors that undermine the priestly vows.  It's crazy--and while it may make sense to have Orders devoted to maintaining the tradition of celebacy, the Church is kidding itself when it continues to insist that the requirement of celebate priests plays no role in the continuing scandals of priest and ses.

Now the child sex abuse scandal is closing in on the former-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, also known as the pope.  Here's one of the major problems as a public relations matter, the Pope is the successor, by tradition, to Peter the apostle of Christ.  In turn each of the Bishops and each priest is speaking to the congregation of the faithful as a representative of Christ on earth.  The Church intends for us, in fact we are taught in our catechism, and by Canon law to listen to the directions of our priests and understand that they are speaking for our Lord, Jesus Christ.  The great irony, is that this understanding, this mandate underlies the very cover-up.  The perception that the crimes of priests undermine their authority to consecrate the host, motivated the heirarchy of your diocesan authorities and Orders in concealing the transgressions by priests.  This corruption is what continues to haunt the Church and now our papacy. 

Here at Bad Lawyer, I personally am grateful to the Church for the sacrament of confession and the absolution granted me as a sacrament of my faith.   It's is time fro the Church to give up the lies, dodges, and corruption.  Whatever steps are necessary to clean the "filth" as Pope Benedict called it, are the steps the Church must take to turn itself inside out and be redeemed in this temporal world.  

The great English writer, Graham Greene was a convert to Catholicism and one of his most powerful novels, The Power and the Glory (1940) dealth with a corrupted and alcoholic priest in the 1930s when the revolutionary government of Mexico was rounding up and killing Roman Catholic priests.  The point of the novel was that faith transcends the temporal corruption of any given priest, and even in that evil time there was hope, good, and faith that animates and lights the dark.  I believe my Church can change, it's time for it to abandon its snail's pace. 

That's my faith.  I still believe, because the Church can still imbue the world with good and hope.

The Catholic Church Games You!

The guy to the right  is Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio.

Bishop DiMarzio made a robocall (that's him on the phone now!)--on behalf of the reelection of that great assemblyman and Brooklyn Democratic Boss, Vito J. Lopez.  Lopez earned the endorsement of our dear representative of Christ on earth by:  (a pulling a little girl from a burning tenement?; (b sponsoring legislation to feed and clothe the poor during this recession?; (c protesting the opening of an abortion clinic in our district?;  or,(d defeating legislation that would have expanded the statute of limitations to allow victims of rape and sexual molestation to sue the perpetrators and the institutions that protected and covered-up the crimes?

If you guessed (d and you voted for Vito--that'll be 10 points plus all your sins are forgiven.  Don't you feel cleansed?