The BBC Doc the Catholic Church Doesn't Want Seen

Published Jul 18, 2007 11:00 PM

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A culture of secrecy that led bishops to place the interest of the Catholic Church ahead of the safety of the children. Sound familiar? That was one of the conclusions of The Ferns Report, which was a study that found 24 priests in a tiny enclave in Ireland that was responsible for the sexual abuse of over 100 boys and girls.

Another conclusion was that the Catholic Church knew of their dirty little secret as far back as 1962 and instead of fixing the problem, created a proceedure to cover it up.

Here in Los Angeles some are alleging that our very own Cardinal Mahoney acted very similarly to the way things were handled in Ireland in that he moved abusive perverts from one church to another when they were discovered diddling the young. Instead of removing the sexual predators from their positions of power, or having them arrested for breaking the law, Mahoney re-established that culture of secrecy, protecting the evil-doers, at the expense of the unsuspecting parishioners who literally handed over their kids to the church for summer camps, Sunday school trips, and other situations where they would be alone with men who the Catholic Church knew were child molesters.

The Daily News' Chris Weinkopf spoke on the phone with the Cardinal Monday regarding the $600+ million payoff and he posted his notes on the DN opinion blog, Friendly Fire. Here's one snippet:

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On why he didn't call the police when he learned of abuses: Unfortunately, in those times we just didn't do that as readily, we didn't understand the depth of the problem.... The McMartin trial was first time in the state of California that this whole issue came into the spotlight, into the light of day...

In those days we didn't think of it in those terms. We would send (offenders) to a licensed psychologist, psychiatrist, or therapist we knew and we told the police that if they discovered there really was an abuse that they would notify law enforcement....

In other words, even though the Bible says to obey the laws of the land, the Cardinal is saying that there were incidents of abuse great enough to send the priests to a therapist, but not to jail?How do you say bullshit in Latin?

After the jump the rest of "Sex crimes and the Vatican" the 2006 BBC documentary whose relevance here in LA grows with each shady answer that comes from our Cardinal's pathetic little mouth.

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4