January 17, 2011

The lawsuit that could destruct the entire church



04/22'10
The man who sued the pope

John Nova Lomax: Houston's Daniel Shea thinks Joseph Ratzinger has a lot to answer for if he'd talk ...

Five years ago, Houston attorney/theologian Daniel Shea watched the results of the papal conclave at home. Intellectually, he knew what the dirty-gray smoke puffing out of the Sistine Chapel's chimney signaled: that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger would soon be announced as the new Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church.
Now, as the white-haired Pope battles a seemingly endless series of priestly sex scandals, Shea says he is still trying to get his head around his belief that he and his co-counsel Tahira Khan Merritt set the coronation in motion when they filed a Houston-based sex abuse lawsuit against Ratzinger.
According to Shea, the cardinals elected Ratzinger Pope to give him the immunity that would enable him to avoid answering any questions concerning his knowledge about and handling of sex abuse cases in Houston's St. Francis De Sales church in the mid-1990s. In fact, Shea believes that what he started with the lawsuit may eventually result in the destruction of the entire Roman Catholic Church.

Dan Shea, a former Catholic deacon, has come a long way from the seminary. Whether that's a long way up or a long way down depends on where today's Catholic Church stands in your eyes. In the last five years, Shea has cracked wise about the Pope being gay and a drag queen in front of the Italian Parliament.
He got a bishop to declare in open court that it was the church's position that minor children were accomplices in their own molestation. He looked another bishop dead in the eye and told him to kiss his ass. So it's safe to say, he evokes strong emotions while expressing his beliefs.
In Doe et al vs Roman Catholic Diocese of Galveston-Houston et al, Shea and Khan Merritt allege that a letter then-Cardinal Ratzinger sent to every Catholic bishop on May 18, 2001, constituted an international conspiracy to obstruct justice. This official Vatican document Ratzinger penned in his role as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith dealt with official church procedure in dealing with clerical sex abuse cases.

Not only did this letter contain the cardinal's current thinking on the subject, it also cited in a footnote a top-secret 1962 Vatican document Shea would eventually flush out.
This 48-year-old document, informally known as Crimen Sollicitationis, considered a smoking gun in some quarters, contains written orders from the Vatican laying bare a system for protecting child molesters.
To Shea, Crimen is more than a smoking gun, it is "a nuclear bomb."

Many churchmen disagree as to the true meaning of Crimen. Still, it's easy to interpret that, taken together, Crimen and Ratzinger's letter of May 18 make it plain that Ratzinger wanted these cases handled by the Vatican and only the Vatican. According to Ratzinger's letter, the roles "of judge, promoter of justice, notary and legal representative can validly be performed for these cases only by priests."
Furthermore, the letter was co-signed by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who later went on the record as follows:
"In my opinion, the demand that a bishop be obligated to contact the police in order to denounce a priest who has admitted the offense of pedophilia is unfounded."

The letter ordered everyone involved in these cases to keep the evidence confidential for ten years after the victims reached adulthood. The entire proceedings were to be held under "pontifical secret," meaning those who broke the silence to outside authorities could be excommunicated.
"Every Cardinal in that conclave had been a recipient of the May 18 cover-up letter," Shea says.
And because they were all recipients, he says, they were all complicit.
In response to Ratzinger's sending that letter, Shea and the Texas Secretary of State had already served his Vatican office with papers. The cardinal was scheduled to appear in federal Judge Lee Rosenthal's Houston courtroom.

What's more, the Pope would be giving his deposition to Shea, who is not just a tough plaintiff's lawyer, but also a former Catholic deacon with three postgraduate theological degrees – one of them pontifical – from the University of Louvain, one of the oldest Catholic universities in Europe.
"I don't think they were too pleased by that prospect," Shea says.
But now that he had been made Pope, it would be a cold day in hell before Joseph Ratzinger would darken the Rusk Street doorway of Rosenthal's court. As a newly minted head of state, Pope Benedict XVI was now diplomatically immune to American lawsuits.
Again, Shea believes that was the whole point behind Ratzinger's election.

Along with its Sharpstown surroundings, St. Francis de Sales ("Catholics are the largest single denomination among religions in the United States.") was rapidly becoming Hispanicized in the 1990s. That was when Colombian native Juan Carlos Patino-Arango was brought in to minister to the growing Spanish-speaking portion of the flock, and he conducted most of the Spanish masses at the church.
His accusers later swore that he was presented to them as a priest, not a mere seminarian.
According to court documents in Shea's lawsuit, Patino-Arango would offer to help counsel the boys about sex and masturbation – topics some mothers don't want to broach with their sons. The suit alleges that these rectory "talks" escalated into Patino-Arango masturbating some of the boys and performing fellatio on one of them while masturbating himself. Some of the boys said he later threatened them after the fact by telling them that nobody would believe their stories over his, and also claimed that many of the other boys in the class had submitted to his "counseling," so they shouldn't feel too bad or abnormal.


comments)

David Whitten) First of all, fuck the Nazi Pope and the Vatican.
Who helped the Nazis escape to Central America? Who covered the face of Christ during Inquisitions? Who molested the souls of many? Praise the Lord. Fuck the Catholic Church.

Kathy) Every church, government institution, or hierarchy has sex scandals. Even married clergy in other religions. I am Catholic, I love the idea of my church. I do not attend as I have to like the priest. I haven't met one I have liked in about 10 years so I stopped going.
The church should not be held accountable for the misdeeds of priests.
If a priest commits these crimes he should go threw the justice system. He has just as much a chance of getting off in the secular world as well as the clerical."


Mary) I am offended that Shea's sexual orientation was not an issue to describe – at least in part – his dissonance for the Catholic Church. I agree that the church needs great evolution in assisting its victims, and this article brings great light to that fact, but I was further offended by the inference that homosexuality is the guiding principle behind selection of the Pope's Personal Secretary. That was a waste of print, and adding levity to the article through those inferences undermined the larger point of advocacy for the victims. The Catholic Church would regain so much confidence if they would just reinstate married clergy. That prohibition has less to do with theology than church finances. And it creates a haven for pedophiles.

Gary Packwood) Before we take on the pope why not at least monitor and learn from the dozens or so law suits pending against Duke University and the City of Durham North Carolina ... all associated with the lacrosse team rape hoax allegedly hatched-up by Duke University and Durham, NC officials.
Duke University is a private university associated with the United Methodist Church just as private catholic schools are associated with the Roman Catholic Church. Attorney Shea thinks Joseph Ratzinger has a lot to answer for if he'd talk. Attorneys for the Duke University 'lacrosse' students feel the same way about the President of Duke University and the now disbarred DA if they would talk. And both are looking for an ongoing criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Private organizations have an entirely different view of our U.S. constitutional guarantees such as due process, probable cause and especially, freedom of speech, which are indeed patently contrary to the spirit of the U.S. Constitution. Attorney Shea is correct. Hopefully Attorney Shea will write a book about his concerns as did Professor KC Johnson for his concerns about the Duke lacrosse rape hoax which he titled "Until Proven Innocent". Ultimately however, we are going to be frustrated as we 'tease out' the historical truth that we Americans – Texans included – detest secret organizations except of course for the secret organizations we belong to.

Nikolaus 1) As you read this, back in the Vatican they are tripping over themselves trying to justify one man's action in his roll as pope and leader of a nation, before that as cardinal in charge of the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith, a job by the way he failed miserably at, and before that, as Archbishop of Munich and Freising. But folks let's not forget the Hitler Youth episode. This should not be the resume of someone who aspires to be pope. Benedict says the true problem is a weakening of faith. Not true. The problem is a corrupt institution led by an arrogant hierarchy which is involved in predatory criminal sexual assault of minors. So far they have pointed the finger at gays, the media, decadence of western society, (although the crime is world wide), even the sexual revolution is at fault. Any and everyone but themselves. No guilt, no how, no way. So as the layers are peeled away as we get closer to the heart of the cover up what is left at the center of it all is the Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. The Pope.
Here's an after thought. This Sunday and all Sundays in the future, when the collection plate comes by, instead of putting in church dollars as my mother called them, put in a slip of paper with a hand written note saying how you feel about the goings on in the church. You see, the only sound they listen to is the sound of the cash register and when that goes quite maybe, just maybe they'll start listening to you.

Mimi) Religion was created out of a need for organization and control. It is purely evil.
If you look back throughout history you can see that a majority of violence was over religion. Every religion thinks their's is the right one and every religious person thinks their "god" will save them from eternal damnation. Stories are nice, I used to read them as a kid myself. Reality is if there is in fact a "god" why would he not be able to control your actions but have the ability to control where your "soul" would go when you die.
Do you really think your "god" would give man a free will and watch as little innocent precious children of god get raped and molested by the people who are supposedly chosen by him. I know religious zealots "god" didn't do this people did, yeah I studied religion for about 18 years of my life, so I know all of your responses, but seriously just think about it for a moment. All in all people religion is not the answer or the solution, change is not in the hands of a spirit its in the hands of us.

Doreen) This church thing just keeps getting worse.
Imagine, referring to the victims as accomplices in thier own crimes.

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