Anyone Who Thinks Lisa Montgomery Should Be Executed Should Read This Article

 Lisa Montgomery is the woman who was found guilty of having killed another woman, supposed to be here friend, only to cut her open and take her unborn baby. Here's the story. Anyone who thinks she should be put to death now, executed, should read this. It took place, as some may know, in not far away Skidmore, Missouri.

Society Failed Lisa Montgomery in Every Way Possible. 

So Now We’re Going to Kill Her

Here's just the core, just some of the story and this article. 

...Montgomery’s crime was certainly heinous. She had befriended a young pregnant woman, Bobbie Jo Stinnett, 23, after the two met at a dog show. After arranging a meeting—ostensibly to purchase a rat terrier puppy—Montgomery killed Stinnett, then gutted her open to kidnap her then eight-month old fetus. Montgomery cleaned the baby—remarkably, the child survived—then brought her home to her husband. She pretended it was her own baby; it is possible she did not understand that the baby was not hers...

...Lisa Montgomery had little if any chance in life. She was born in 1968, the child of two troubled alcoholics. She had brain damage, likely caused by exposure to alcohol when she was a developing fetus. Mental illness ran in her family. Her father had a daughter from a previous marriage; the two girls grew up together. As part of an excellent story on the Montgomery case, the Huffpost tracked down the older sibling, Diane Mattingly, who described the traumatic world in which young Lisa grew up. It was a world of unimaginable cruelty and horror.

Her mother, Judy Shaughnessy, beat her daughters with belts, cords, or hangers. On one occasion, to punish her children Lisa’s mother killed the family dog in front of them, smashing its head in with a shovel. Her father was often away from home for long periods time. Her mother would bring home other men; fights would erupt, and the violence spilled over to include the young girls. When Mattingly was about 8, one of the men whom her mother brought home began raping her, as Montgomery, then only 4, lie in bed beside her. Mattingly escaped when child protective services removed her from the home.

Lisa was not so fortunate. Her mother married another violent, erratic man, Jack Kleiner, who beat his wife and the children regularly; he would often make the daughters strip naked before whipping them. The sexual component of that punishment morphed into ever greater abuse as Kleiner began molesting then raping young Lisa. The abuse lasted for years. The parents also allowed men who did work on their house—a plumber and an electrician— to rape Lisa as payment for their services. Lisa was thus a victim of child sex trafficking.

Shaughnessy and Kleiner divorced when Montgomery was 15. During those proceedings Shaughnessy told the court her husband raped Montgomery, saying once that she walked in on him while “he was in her. He was pumping her.” The court admonished her for not reporting the crime to authorities, but then itself failed to report the abuse. Kleiner was never charged. Lisa also told authorities of her abuse—she confided to a cousin who was a law enforcement officer—but the officer failed to report Lisa’s situation. At school, Lisa’s work was substandard, and she was placed with special needs students. She often came to class dirty and unkempt. School authorities suspected abuse, but they too failed to investigate or to report their suspicions to the police.

Like many victims of violent sexual assault, Montgomery blamed herself for her predicament. She also began to disassociate herself from what was happening to her. Her stepbrother told the court that “Lisa told me that when these men raped her, she would go away in her mind and try not to be present.” Clearly Lisa had only a fragile grip on reality because she needed to escape reality to survive. That break from lived reality would plague her later life.

As with many children who experience chaotic, unstable childhoods, her adult life mimicked those conditions. When she was 18, at her mother’s instigation, she married her stepbrother who then coerced her into sterilization. She drank heavily, could not hold a job, had multiple car accidents, and neglected her own children. She lived in extreme poverty and was constantly moving from home to home; by the time she was 34 she had moved sixty-one times. She was said to often space out, to be disconnected from reality. After she was sterilized, she repeatedly told people that she was pregnant.

If this young woman's circumstances shouldn't be taken into consideration then I don't know who we are. We certainly aren't a "Christian", forgiving, understanding nation, I'll tell you that. And this would no way be anything remotely close to anything called or considered justice.

KCUR Throws Softballs for the New Bishop and The Catholic Church

The local NPR station, KCUR interviewed the new Catholic Bishop, James Johnston today and what a disappointment.

Leading The Flock: Bishop Johnston 

KCUR

Coming at this time, when the local Catholic Diocese is just off a rather large child abuse sex scandal, the Bishop--and worse, the Church--got off easy, very easy. All the Bishop got for an hour were the easiest of, as I said in the title, "softball" questions. There was no "holding their feet to the fire", holding the Bishop and the Church accountable that, first, the sexual abuse of children in their care ever occurred and then, worse, that it was covered up. And it was covered up for years and years, at that.

The interview began hopefully enough with a recording of Catholics in an actual mass at the local Church of the Immaculate Conception, reading the written words of some of the now-adults who had been abused by the Priests here in this Diocese.

But from there, it was lost.

It was as though these children weren't ever abused, sexually abused.

Forget that the previous Bishop had been found guilty in a local, civil court, "LET'S MOVE ON!"

From there, the interviewer, Brian Ellison, immediately went into questions about the Bishop himself, where he came from, what his background and family life were like, etc.

Students? Children? Sexually abused??   FUGGEDABOUDIT!

Adults? In the Church? Covering up for the sexual abusers??   WE OUTTA' HEAH.

I can't imagine a more touchy-feely interview and conversation, given that so many children were, again, abused and sexually abused and by Catholic Church Priests and then covered up by some and ignored by others, all in the Catholic Church.

And sure, I understand that there has to be some "niceness", some respect to the guest but we're talking the sexual abuse of children here. It isn't over. Bishop Finn may have finally been foisted, however reluctantly, out of his position in and with the Church and Bishop Johnston  is now in his place but for the people who were sexually abused, rest assured, it is not over.

The biggest question, I think, that needs to be both asked and answered and then held to, would be "What provisions have been made within the Church and within this Diocese to make sure sexual abuse of a child and worse, of children, never occurs again?"

It's true partly because this sexual abuse occurred at all but it's especially true because this is far, far from the first time these kinds of sexual abuse cases have occurred in the Catholic Church. Far from it.

Sexual abuse has occurred in Catholic Churches and schools and Dioceses, as the world knows, in not just areas, not just states of the US, but all across the US, all across Europe and, in fact, the world.  And it's happened over not just years or part of a century but FOR CENTURIES. Literally for centuries. They don't like to talk about that or have you know it or think about it.

At what point does the Catholic Church learn? At what point do the Bishops and Priests and leaders in the Church learn from these abuses and put policies in place so they never occur again? (Reminds me of an old joke.  Q:  How many Catholics does it take to change a light bulb?  A:  CHANGE??)

Next was the question:  "How are you going to clean up the mess he's (Bishop Finn has) left?"

For his answer, the new Bishop gave an extremely vague and, I'm sure, intentionally warm and fuzzy answer about there being lots of people in the area who care and who have "a desire to make a difference."

That was it.

They then brought on one Kathleen Chastain, Victim Services Coordinator of the Church.

And for that, I say we have to pause right there.

Note:  This is a church. This is a Catholic Church. It's supposed to be about Jesus and Jesus Christ and love and everything good and they have to have a Victim Services Coordinator, Offices of Child and Youth Protection.

Does that not say something right there?

What other church organization, self-professed Christian or otherwise, has to have a Victim Services Coordinator, let alone Offices of Child and Youth Protection?   (Those Catholics can sure do hierarchy and bureaucracy, can't they? Like no one else, governments included).

So Mr. Ellison asked Ms. Chastain how long her position has been around. Ms. Chastain answered that "...there has always been a Victim Advocate..."

Holy Mary, Mother of God.

That tells you how long the problem has been going on right there, folks. THERE HAS ALWAYS BEEN A VICTIM ADVOCATE.  But you think they'd maybe let Priests marry or something, to solve the problem?

NAAAAHHHH.  Again, FUGGEDABOUDIT.

Forget that, apparently and even obviously, the "Victim Advocate" has little or no power or effect whatever or the problem wouldn't keep not just occurring in the Church but recurring.

What amazes me is that more Catholics aren't embarrassed by child sexual abuse in the Church.

The other thing that amazes me is that Catholics stay in the pews, they stay in the Church, even given all these, again, recurring sexual abuse cases of children.     CHILDREN.

Ms. Chastain said her job "is to provide support for those suffering from abuse by the hands of the Church"--her words, not mine--"and then to provide outreach."   She described "outreach" as  "a more pro-active approach like the healing services we provide...". This is masses dealing with this issue of child sexual abuse.

Can you imagine that? Think about it. Can you imagine going to Church, ostensibly to be a better person, maybe to hear about God and Jesus and God's love and everything good and then HAVING TO SIT THROUGH AN ALMOST ONE HOUR MASS, kind of confessing THE CHURCH'S SINS, the Priests and Bishops sins and then going home? How screwed up is your Church if it's asking for forgiveness? And then, how screwed up is your Church when it has to ask the people for forgiveness again and again and again, in different locations, all round your nation, all around the world and for centuries?  And you're still attending?  You're still giving them money?

OH HELL NO.

Mr. Ellison asked Ms. Chastain if the local Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese ever put an actual figure on the number of people sexually abused here.

The answer?   No.

Oh, heck, no because that would mean, a) you care and b) you intend to own up to your problems and faults and make restitution. The Catholic Church and their leaders will have none of that. They've already paid out millions upon millions of Church offerings from people in the pews. The last thing they want to do is maybe "come clean", at long last, and risk paying out yet more money.  "Run along, run along. There's nothing to see here."

Ms. Chastain actually said "I don't know if there's any way we could put a number to that." That is, put a number on the actual childen---again, children---who were sexually abused in this Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese.

Isn't that a beauty?

The one question I wanted to hear both asked and answered was and still is---What, precisely, reforms and hard rules have been put down to make certain this never, ever happens again?

It was never asked.

For anyone who's ever been a Catholic and exposed to what they do, this is all pretty stunning because the one thing they make you do and say, week after week, in their Catholic Mass, is that we are "not worthy."

Jesus (said ironically and for effect).  That's rich.  They have sexual abuse scandals of children in their own care, from state to state to state and nation to nation, continent to continent, over decades and even centuries and they have the people in the pews, the followers, say they're "not worthy."  Irony and hypocrisy doesn't get any heavier or thicker than that.

Then Mr. Ellison compliments Ms. Chastain and so, by default, the Church by saying she and the Church deserve credit for being so forthcoming "about how things were not addressed in the past."

That's pretty clueless right there.  So they're talking "honestly and openly about how things were not addressed in the past."  Big deal.  WHAT, PRECISELY, ARE YOU DOING TO MAKE SURE THIS DOESN'T, THAT THIS NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN?

Then Mr. Ellison asks when this change took place.

Wow.  That so totally does not matter. The only three things that matter are holding people accountable that let this happen to begin, the tending to the abused and then MAKING SURE IT NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN. Who gives a freak when this change, this new supposed honestly took place? That's irrelevant. Again, it's a softball, pointless, unnecessary question.

Mr. Ellison came close, close, to holding the new Bishop and the Church accountable, a little over halfway through when he pointed out that SNAP said the Church's services about these episodes were only, in effect, "window dressing" (my words) and for outward consumption, that they weren't real contrition or solutions. The Bishop quickly diverted the question by saying he was sincerely sorry and that if anyone doubted it, he couldn't stop them.

Well I'm glad he cleared that up.

"We're done here."

Mr. Ellison asked just what a Bishop does all day.  Man, that is some hard-hitting question, right there. This entire conversation was dripping with, again, irony and hypocrisy on the part of the Catholic Church.

From there, it went on to questions from the callers and to "looking to the future", according to Mr. Ellison. The first caller, a Catholic, he said, tried to pin the Bishop down on the Bishops in the Church, through the Council of Bishops (see? more of that wonderful Catholic bureaucracy) holding individual Bishops accountable for their actions. It came close to the issues but that was as good as it got.

Look, I love NPR and KCUR but this interview went off the rails from the start and ended that way. It was weak and soft and empty. At the end, I'm surprised all three of them, the interviewer, the Bishop and the "Vitcim Advocate" didn't all get up, hold each other and sing "Kumbaya."

I'm just glad that Bishop Finn and now Bishop Johnston and all the Catholic leaders, nationwide and worldwide, were all able to sweep all this child sexual abuse stuff under the rug and move on.

Aren't you?

Links:

Missouri bishop to succeed Bishop Finn in Kansas City-St. Joseph

Left hanging in the wake of Bishop Finn's ouster

Francis appoints new bishop for scandal-rocked US diocese

Kansas City diocese holds service for sexual abuse healing

Catholic bishop apologizes for 'betrayal' of sexual abuse

Kansas City bishop found guilty in priest child abuse case

Kansas City Bishop Convicted of Shielding Pedophile Priest

Further Tragedies From Missouri and Kansas Republicans

This is why Missouri needs Republicans out of office in Jefferson City.

Senate Leader Ron Richard on Campaign Contribution Limits: "It’s Just Not Going to Happen."

Recipient of large campaign donation checks unmoved by calls for ethics reform

We, Missouri, are the only state in the Union that doesn't have limits on campaign contributions.

It's shameful. 

It's stupid. 

It's irresponsible. 

It's certainly not for the people.

It's legalized bribery and it needs to end and soon as possible.

And here's a quick, terrific example of why Kansans need Republicans out of office in Topeka:

Kansas won't join effort to tighten domestic abuse gun laws

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Kansas apparently won't join several other states that have passed recent laws aimed at making it more difficult for domestic abusers to have weapons.

That's brilliant, huh? A man might abuse his wife or partner but can still  get weapons due to the Republicans actions.

Republicans clearly, clearly need to be voted out of both state houses.

Let's get busy.

Links:  Jeff City Gift Takers, Ranked  

The Jeff City Gift Culture, by the Numbers

If you aren’t worried about the future of Kansas, here are some reasons to start

So much Catholic news popping up lately

Really, the stories are hitting all over--mostly good ones, for the people and children.

First there was this in The New York Times Sunday from op/ed columnist Frank Bruni:

The Church's Errant Shepherds

Mr. Bruni rightly points out that yet more extremely damaging but sadly predictable documents are coming out from the Catholic Church on their sex scandals, this time, from Milwaukee:

BOSTON, Philadelphia, Los Angeles. The archdioceses change but the overarching story line doesn’t, and last week Milwaukee had a turn in the spotlight, with the release of roughly 6,000 pages of records detailing decades of child sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests there, a sweeping, searing encyclopedia of crime and insufficient punishment.

The one thing that has to be kept in mind foremost at all times are the children and their families that are hurt and affected, just as SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, always insists.

Behind that, however, are the many millions of dollars spent on covering up the Catholic Church's transgressions because, in the first place, the sexual abuse of their students occurs and then the Church compounds the gravity of the situation by covering it up, time and again, and trying to protect the priests that commit these acts, instead of protecting those same children, both the ones already abused and the ones who might be, in the future.

The article goes on:

"...over the last few decades we’ve watched an organization that claims a special moral authority in the world pursue many of the same legal and public-relations strategies — shuttling around money, looking for loopholes, tarring accusers, massaging the truth — that are employed by organizations devoted to nothing more than the bottom line.
      

In San Diego, diocesan leaders who filed for bankruptcy were rebuked by a judge for misrepresenting the local church’s financial situation to parishioners being asked to help pay for sex-abuse settlements.

      

In St. Louis church leaders claimed not to be liable for an abusive priest because while he had gotten to know a victim on church property, the abuse itself happened elsewhere."

And here, ladies and gentlemen, is where it gets REALLY good, at least for Kansas Citians and what we've been exposed to and seen in the last few decades:

       

In Kansas City, Mo., Rebecca Randles, a lawyer who has represented abuse victims, says that the church floods the courtroom with attorneys who in turn drown her in paperwork. In one case, she recently told me, “the motion-to-dismiss pile is higher than my head — I’m 5-foot-4.”

And, for me, the clincher, since Bishop Finn still holds his office, even though he was found guilty in a court of law:

      

Also in Kansas City, Bishop Robert Finn still inhabits his post as the head of the diocese despite his conviction last September for failing to report a priest suspected of child sexual abuse to the police. This is how the church is in fact unlike a corporation. It coddles its own at the expense of its image.

Can you say "Travesty of justice"?

It's beyond disgusting, besides being deeply, deeply immoral and out and out ugly and wrong, in so many ways.

Yet these are the people who are supposed to be "Godly" and moral. 

And they still don't "get it."

 Finally, at least today, there's the breaking news this week you may already have seen:

Diocese settles suit alleging abuse by priest led to suicide

KC Diocese Settles Sex Abuse Death Case On Trial Eve

And of course, this is both good and bad news. There wouldn't be anything good about it at all but the Church is being held accountable yet one more time, if only financially, for transgressions of their male hierarch (read: priests).

Once again, we all have to ask--Catholic, non-Catholic, all of us--when does this end?  When do these people learn? When will there stop being if not any physical or sexual abuse acts and reports of Catholic children and students, at least far less?  And then, when will they begin truly not covering up for the abusive priests and transferring them to other parts of the country or world?

Five decades ago would have been too soon.

The excuses by them and for them, by others, have to stop.

The abuse must end.

Here's your "Catholic Education" for you

So many of us don't know our history:

Catholic Church enslaved 30,000 Irish women in Magdalene Laundries until 1996

From the article:

The Irish Prime Minister gave a partial apology today for the government’s role in a 74-year scandal in which, a new official government report says, over 10,000 women were forced to work without pay at commercial laundries called Magdalene Laundries, operated by the Catholic Church for “crimes” as small as not paying a train ticket.

Wikipedia notes that the estimate of the number of women who were used as forced slave labor by the Catholic Church in Ireland alone goes as high as 30,000 over the entire time the Magdalene laundries were in operation.

The last Magdalene laundry closed in 1996.

Women were locked in, couldn’t leave Magdalene Laundries for months, sometimes years

The women were locked in and not permitted to leave.  And if they tried to get away, the cops would catch them and bring them back. They were quite literally Catholic slave labor working for the government and even Guinness, which would pay the laundries for the women’s slave labor.

Half of the girls enslaved in these Catholic Church prisons were under the age of 23.  The youngest entrant was 9 years old.

Singer Sinead O’Connor was perhaps the most famous Magdalene Laundry slave

Singer Sinead O’Connor was forced to work in a Magdalene Laundry in Dublin:

When I was a young girl, my mother — an abusive, less-than-perfect parent — encouraged me to shoplift. After being caught once too often, I spent 18 months in An Grianán Training Centre, an institution in Dublin for girls with behavioral problems, at the recommendation of a social worker. An Grianán was one of the now-infamous church-sponsored “Magdalene laundries,” which housed pregnant teenagers and uncooperative young women. We worked in the basement, washing priests’ clothes in sinks with cold water and bars of soap. We studied math and typing. We had limited contact with our families. We earned no wages. One of the nuns, at least, was kind to me and gave me my first guitar.

This, however, is, for me, the most difficult to believe and hardest to forgive them for:

No apology from the Catholic Church

Absent from any of the media reports on the scandal that I could find was an apology from the Catholic Church which operated the Magdalene laundries and made handsome profits from contracts with government and hotels.  Oh, found one. It seems the Catholic Church blew the women off.  I know, you’re as surprised as I am:

Victims of the child sex abuse scandals that have rocked the Irish Catholic Church have received an apology and compensation, but no one has taken responsibility for what happened in the laundries. Cardinal Sean Brady, the most senior Catholic cleric in Ireland, met with Justice for Magdalenes in 2010. He said “by today’s standards much of what happened at that time is difficult to comprehend” but that it was a matter for the religious orders who ran the laundries to deal with. The religious orders have declined to meet the women.

The Irish Cardinal wasn’t interested in hearing from people who were hurt and abused — if not sexually, certainly physically and mentally, by the Catholic Church.  And it’s not the Catholic Church’s fault. 

 Where have we heard that story before?

The laundries were run by nuns, many of whom treated the women sent to work there as slaves:

Senator McAleese’s inquiry found that half of the girls and women put to work in the laundries were under the age of 23 and 40%, more than 4,000, spent more than a year incarcerated.

Fifteen percent spent more than five years in the laundries while the average stay was calculated at seven months.

The youngest death on record was 15, and the oldest 95, the report found.

The Irish state is also implicated in the scandal because the police would take women to the asylums after arresting them for trivial offenses and would return runaways.

The story of the Magdalene laundries shows what happens when an institution — in this case the church and the government — is considered beyond criticism. It probably isn’t a coincidence that the last of the laundries closed in 1996, shortly after the first wave of the Catholic pedophile priest scandals hit Ireland.

Let me reiterate that for a moment.  The Catholic Church had slaves as late as 1996.

There is more to the article, too. There are women's brief accounts of what was done to them. It would be worth our time to go the the original article so we all know more of what happened. 

The world needs to know what happened, we need to never forget and we need to make sure things remotely like this are ended and that they're not repeated, of course, ever.

The atheist's take on a new pope

And they make good, valid points:

"Some of you are asking why we care about the papal election. The reason we care is that even though we are vehemently against the overall aims and practices of the Catholic Church, the Church does have a huge influence in the world for many, many people.

If the Church were to change its stance on condom use, for example, many people would be saved from death in AIDS-ridden regions of the world. If the Church were to change its stance on stem-cell research, much wonderful scientific research could receive more funding. If the Catholic Church were to change its stance on birth control, many abortions could be avoided. If the Church were to change its stance on abortion, access to abortion would be easier for everyone. If the Church were to change its stance that only men can become priests, this is step toward equality for women.

Not a single one of these issues is explicitly discussed in the Bible, and the Church's stance on them is completely dependent on papal interpretation. And these are just some of the issues we, as atheist activists, care about."

For anyone open to a different viewpoint than the more common and already well-known and accepted.

Excellent documentary tonight on HBO on the Catholic Church & their sexual assault and abuse cases

The trailer:



Besides spelling out what happened here, with over 200 children, it also apparently implicates now Pope Benedict XVI, formerly Cardinal Ratzinger.

These are stories that need, desperately, to be told.

Catholic beggars on the Plaza

So yesterday I went to the Plaza Art Fair as I do annually. I love it. I always will.

I love seeing any and all new artists, especially the ones who are creating truly unique, wonderful pieces in whatever medium. That, more than anything, is why I go though I enjoy it regardless.

I go in, I see the art, I dodge the people, I try to tell a select few artists how I enjoy their work and I get out.

Twice yesterday, while there, I was approached by two students from St. Vincent de Paul grade school, asking if I would, one way or another, support them--and their school--by buying a candy bar or just making a donation or some such.

And I have to tell you, the chutzpah of both the school, in allowing such a thing, and the kid's parents, for dressing them up and making them do it strikes me as just absolutely shameful.

Begging, mooching for support, on a street corner, in public, on the Country Club Plaza in broad daylight when actually, the kid could be out playing. Shoot, for that matter, he or she could even be doing something useful or more productive like cutting the lawn or studying.

There's just no shame with these people.

Forget that these families seem to come from what are clearly at least middle-class families who could go to a public school so they don't have to incur any additional expense. The way some of the mothers and children look, they may honestly even be from upper-class families but there they are, out begging on the street corner.

Then, forget that the Catholic church has so many sexual predators in priest's clothing.

Forget that the male hierarchy has and still does go to great, great lengths to protect those same predators and abusers instead of protecting the children, first.

Forget that a priest was just found guilty of it here, locally.

Worse yet, forget that their current Bishop, Finn, was just found guilty of doing just that--protecting a priest who had sexually exploited Catholic school children at, apparently, three different, local Catholic grade schools.

Forget that this has happened all over the planet, in many, many different nations of the world.

Forget that this sexual abuse has gone on for literally centuries, seriously.

Forget that it still seems to keep happening.

Sure, forget all that.

Just clean up the kids, dress them up up in those adorable little uniforms, and put them out on the street corner to hawk their Catholic school and beg for financial support.

It galls me every time I see them out there.

Then there's this headline that I just got, today, in my email:

Papal Nuncio left Ireland after vast sums of money found in his bank accounts

"A former Papal Nuncio left Ireland under a cloud after vast sums of South American funded money were found in his bank account.

Archbishop Gaetano Alibrandi left Dublin and the Vatican’s diplomatic service in 1989 after investigations into his financial affairs."

Further proof of why, no way in heck do I want to have any money--any money at all, in any form--go to these people.

Cute and bright as the kids seem to be, each time I had to just wave them off and tell them I don't support the Catholic schools. Geez. Make us the heels.

Someone has to be a Grinch about this so I guess it has to be me.

Let me make it clear, here, too--I was nice to the kids. It's certainly not their fault. Hopefully, one day they can break away from all that entrapping dogma and abuse.

It's almost enough to ruin a perfect weather day at the annual art fair.

Link: http://www.snapnetwork.org/

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Papal-Nuncio-left-Ireland-after-vast-sums-of-money-found-in-his-bank-accounts-170813076.html

More Catholic priests: This is weird

Did you see the article in the Star today, telling of the local increase in candidates for the Catholic priesthood, bucking national trends otherwise?

More area Catholic ordinations challenge a national trend

In Missouri and Kansas, more men are being ordained or studying to become priests.

And why wouldn't these young men choose the Catholic priesthood? Look at all the benefits.

--free housing

--bills paid

--education paid for, once you're in

--people shower you with gifts and praise nearly no matter what kind of job you really do

--no matter your ability, you can always, always give other people advice on their lives--even their marriages--even though you've never been and never will be married

And the biggest reason to become a Catholic priest was just witnessed by all of us when Bishop Finn got off, one more time, in a court of law from any responsiblity for not doing what you would otherwise have to do if you were a layperson.

Face it--become a priest, become above the law.

Such a deal.

Link: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/10/3808061/more-area-catholic-ordinations.html

On why I rail against the abusers in the Catholic Church

This is an example of why:

"I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."

--Elie Wiesel, from his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize, in 1986

Link: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1986/wiesel-acceptance.html

Bishop Finn: Our institutions fail us again

Justice was done but only partly and then weakly, weakly at that.

Our institutions fail us, once again. In this case, two of them--these people's Catholic Church and our court system.

From the Kansas City Star this afternoon:

Bishop Finn verdict: Guilty

As you can see, I'm happy with this, with the one guilty verdict but still, Judge John Torrence "... acquitted him on another count of failing to report."

Here's the other disappointing thing:

"Torrence sentenced Finn to two years of probation then suspended the sentence, meaning that if Finn completes the unsupervised probation without any new incidents happening, his criminal record will be expunged."

This is so disgusting.

To begin, it should have gone to a jury, to a juried trial.

I saw this little figurative slap on the wrist coming.

I'm disgusted.

Isn't it super that Catholic leaders have gotten off easy one more time and they're free--still--to molest or sexually or physically abuse the students--their children--in their own schools and churches still longer?

They'll never learn, at this rate.

To Judge John Torrence and the Catholic Church--you all disgust me.

You deserve each other.

Congratulations to all Catholics.

To our disgust--but not our surprise--you get to keep your male hierarchy that keeps molesting and abusing your own children:

A) We hope you're happy;

B) We can't believe you keep giving these people money;

C) We can't believe you still support these people in any form, verbal, financial or otherwise and finally,

D) Unless and until you stand up, speak up and demand this end--including getting the resignation or firing of Bishop Finn--you are culpable for what Bishop Finn, Shawn Ratigan and all the rest of the people like them have inflicted and for what they will continue to inflict into the future on your children, because it will surely continue to keep happening, as we see time and again, across the nation and world.

Seriously, y'all are disgusting, vile, enabling human beings.

Link: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/06/3800269/bishop-finn-verdict-guilty.html

SNAP urges no sentencing for bishop today

Direct from their email:

Victims write to the judge and the prosecutor"

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is urging a Kansas City judge and prosecutor to delay any sentencing of embattled Bishop Robert Finn today, should he plead guilty or be found guilty of concealing child sex crimes.

A copy of the letter, sent this morning by fax and e mail, is below:

Dear Judge John M. Torrence:

Dear Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker:

We respectfully urge that Bishop Robert Finn not be sentenced today. Essentially he is guilty of a crime involving secrecy. He ignored and refused to listen to people who should have been listened to. It would be a shame if his case was resolved in a way that also involved secrecy and the ignoring of people who should have been listened to.

Bishop Finn wants this over as soon as possible with the least amount of public scrutiny and public input. While sentencing the Bishop today serves his interests, it does not serve the public's interest. Nor does it help bring justice, healing and prevention.

Normally, weeks transpire between a guilty finding or plea and a criminal's sentencing. That's what should happen here. Bishop Finn should receive no special consideration or privileges. Doing so would only undermine public trust and faith in our justice system.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, have been hurt by Bishop Finn’s wrongdoing. Victims include families hurt by Fr Ratigan, other clergy sex abuse victims, and devout but betrayed Catholics. As victims of Bishop Finn’s crimes they deserve a chance to be heard before the bishop's sentence is determined.

Fast-tracking his trial is bad enough. Fast-tracking his sentence is even worse. The justice system should not be abused for the convenience or protection of a powerful wrongdoer.

One reason child sex abuse victims stay silent is because they have seen predators and their allies get preferential treatment by authority figures. Many victims are hopeless and feel if they speak up, somehow, wrongdoers will still escape punishment, get privileges and future crimes will not be deterred. Please do not exacerbate the hopelessness many victims feel. Please do not show such favor to Finn and thereby rub even more salt into the already deep and still-fresh wounds of those he has hurt. Please give them the opportunity, another crime victims have, to express their views, in court, after his plea, at a later date before sentencing is determined.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Barbara Dorris
SNAP Outreach Director

Bishop Finn's defense attorneys swing for the fences

Did you see this article in the Star yesterday?

Lawyers for bishop, KC diocese want some evidence kept out of trial

Attorneys for Bishop Robert Finn and diocese make the argument in a pre-trial motion.

It's no surprise, really. The more the Bishop's attorneys keep out of the court, the more likely they are to be able to keep him out of the slammer and serving time as so many of us think he should, given his lack of responsibility and criminal betrayal of the children in their schools.

There are parts, however, that I find particularly egregious if not out-and-out disgusting.

The first is that they want to see to it that they keep material from the Shawn Ratigan trial out of his own trial. They're trying to make sure that "even if the evidence establishes that other diocesan employees described images discovered on the Ratigan computer to Bishop Finn, there is still no evidence to indicate that Bishop Finn read the memo or saw the images,' the motion states."

It seems Bishop Finn wants to get off scot-free in all aspects and claim he had absolutely no responsibilities to these children/students of the church.

Here's what's worst of the entire case and article, at least to me, however:

The motion also seeks to exclude another memo, written in May 2010 by the school principal at the Northland parish where Ratigan was pastor, that raised concerns about Ratigan’s behavior toward children. The memo predates the alleged criminal conduct for which the bishop and diocese are being tried, and Finn never saw or read the memo, the defense says.

This letter that the principal wrote and sent was, as I understand it, from an earlier article in the Star, sent directly to Bishop Finn. If that's the case, it seems difficult to believe that his assistant, Monsignor Murphy, was to intercept his letters and that he did so in this case.

All this said, we have a few things going in our favor on this whole mess, to see to it Bishop Finn is held responsible for the failure of his duties:

--Shawn Ratigan finally, finally admitted guilt in his own case and

--the Cardinal's aide, back East, was found guilty in his case (see link below) and there are some similarities in Bishop Finn's and this one.

Here's hoping justice is truly served here, in this case.

More importantly--much more importantly--here's hoping that, one day soon, Catholic school children will no longer be ignored or denied, let alone sexually or physically abused.


Links: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/08/20/3770769/lawyers-for-bishop-kc-diocese.html#storylink=cpy

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/23/us/philadelphias-msgr-william-j-lynn-is-convicted-of-allowing-abuse.html?pagewanted=all

In case you've never seen and read this letter

Text of ex-slave's letter to his former master (on Yahoo! News last evening):

The famed letter written by an ex-slave in response to his former master's request that he return to the plantation, soon after the end of the Civil War. Different versions of the letter bear various spellings of the writer's name.

Dayton, Ohio,August 7, 1865

To My Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee

Sir:

I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin's to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable.

Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.

I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get twenty-five dollars a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy — the folks call her Mrs. Anderson — and the children — Milly, Jane, and Grundy — go to school and are learning well. The teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher. They go to Sunday school, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated.

Sometimes we overhear others saying, "Them colored people were slaves" down in Tennessee. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks; but I tell them it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Colonel Anderson. Many darkeys would have been proud, as I used to be, to call you master. Now if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will be better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again.

As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost-Marshal-General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back, and deduct what you paid for our clothing, and three doctor's visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to.

Please send the money by Adams's Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq., Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night; but in Tennessee there was never any pay-day for the negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire.

In answering this letter, please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up, and both good-looking girls. You know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay here and starve — and die, if it come to that — than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters. You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the colored children in your neighborhood. The great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits.

Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.

From your old servant,

Jourdon Anderson

Why The Star and SNAP are right about this Catholic Church Abuse Scandal with Bishop Finn

The reasons why our own Kansas City Star and SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) is correct, to date, about Bishop Finn, the Catholic Church and the abuse charges against this Bishop are because, first, the Star is merely reporting things as and when they happen. It's called reporting. It's what they're supposed to do.

Should they take editorial stands on it?

Sure they should. It is, after all, adults sexually and/or physically abusing the students--children--they are supposed to be otherwise responsible for. That and they're from their own churches and schools. What other stand should any people or organization take?

As for SNAP? Same thing. They're trying to see to it that the sexual and physical abuse of students--children--isn't left unpunished so that it doesn't take place any longer.

So the Catholic Church and their attorneys have done their best to intimidate SNAP by asking the courts to take their files.

Crazy but not a huge surprise. It is, after all, the law firm's goal to win the case, whatever ugliness that might entail.

But, in spite of that, the latest news today on this scandal vindicates, I think, both SNAP and the Star. It is this:

Prosecutor wants new charge against Bishop Finn, diocese in failure to report child abuse case --Mark Morris, The Kansas City Star (link at bottom)

The new charges would not allege any new facts about conduct attributable to either Finn or the diocese. Rather, the new charges would subdivide the existing charges into two distinct periods in which Finn and the diocese allegedly should have reported Ratigan to state child abuse and neglect investigators.

The first period would cover Dec. 17, 2010, to Feb. 10, 2011, when the church learned of the photographs, Ratigan attempted suicide and he was sent for medical treatment.

The second period would begin on Feb. 11, 2011, the date Finn sent Ratigan a letter outlining restrictions on his conduct and May 18, after Murphy notified police.

Additionally--and this seems logical and like a good move to me, knowing what we do of the case and the events to date--they've added this:

"Prosecutors also have asked a judge to approve a massive request for records from the diocese’s so-called 'secret archive' detailing the diocese’s responses to child abuse allegations both before and after Finn began serving in Kansas City in May 2004."

In the first place, Finn's attorneys did this to SNAP so turnabout is fair play but far more importantly, if the Church and their offices have any such "secret archive", it should naturally come out to the light of day so the prosecutors know what they're dealing with.

The last word on this case and all others facing the Catholic Church is that this abuse--sexual, physical and any and all other--must, at long last, end after all these centuries and continents, literally, once and for all.

Hopefully that day is coming soon. Hopefully that day is nearly here.

Link: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/05/07/3599367/prosecutor-wants-new-charge-against.html

Ladies and gentlemen, the Catholic Church

From the news last evening: U.S. priests accused in 700 sex cases in 2011: report. Forget, for now, conveniently, the Crusades and Inquisitions of the last 600 years and all the people tortured and/or killed by the Catholic Church. Let's focus, instead, right this moment, on the current state of the Catholic Church. In 2011 alone, 700 claims of abuse were put up before our courts in one nation--the US--alone. First, imagine how many more cases there are out there that weren't reported. Statistically, it's estimated that the people who do file charges are only 10% of those actually committed. Second, imagine what's out there in the rest of the world. It's long since time that the Catholics in the pews stood up and said they won't take this any longer, that they won't tolerate any further abuse. Link to original post: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/04/11/u-s-priests-accused-in-700-sex-cases-in-2011-report/#.T4Y4Z35as0g.facebook

Missouri SNAP hit by Catholic hierarchy--in The NY Times

David Clohessy keeps records from his advocacy group, known as SNAP, in his St. Louis home.

Today: Church Puts Legal Pressure on Abuse Victims’ Group The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said broad subpoenas in two Missouri sex-abuse cases were a means of intimidation, an accusation the church disputed. So not only is the Catholic hierarchy capable of physical and sexual abuse of students--the children they should be taking care of and helping--but now they're also trying to "strong arm" the people who are trying to get the abuse to stop. Naturally, there is mention in the article of our situation here, dealing with enabler Bishop Finn and his case in court. It's just disgusting. Truly vile. These people have become the very thing they are supposed to warn the rest of us to not be. Links: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/us/catholic-church-pressures-victims-network-with-subpoenas.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120313; http://ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/update%3A-ccr-client-under-attack-catholic-church-lawyers

Rose Brooks bigger Oscar night...

A much more important, local show was going on across town for our own Rose Brooks with Kristen Chenoweth hosting their big, annual fundraiser for them.

Hopefully it was a huge, huge, very successful and fun evening for all involved. The Rose Brooks Center does such terrific, helpful, important work. Here's hoping.

The world gone mad

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) has pointed out--rightly, it seems--that Bishop Finn and the local Catholic Diocese may challenge US pornography laws in their defense of Shawn Ratigan and the Bishop. Talk about a world gone mad. The Catholic Church, going against the nation's pornography laws, all so they can try to defend a former priest who, it is known, took terribly inappropriate pictures of young and very young children in local Parishes he worked for and then stored those on his computers. All this was revealed in a brif article in the Kansas City Star Friday (see link below). It's bad enough yet another in a long line of Catholic priests has abused his positionn and exploited childern who were entrusted to him. It's yet another bizarre twist to think that this church organization would fight the nation's pornography laws that were designed to protect all our citizens, but especially the children, and instead, that this church would fight to tear those laws down, all so it could save itself and one of its priests and the church's hierarchy. A topsy-turvy world gone mad. It makes me nearly nauseous. Links: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/11/11/3271959/mark-morris-digesting-the-legal.html; http://www.snapnetwork.org/_bishop_to_challenge_us_child_porn_laws_snap_responds

Kansas City Diocese headlines in big Catholic news

There is a cureent events humorist, one Yonah Ward Grossman, whom I follow on Facebook who also happens to have a photoblog. A recent entry highlights some Catholic Church "wins", in spite of the fact that the Catholics involved end up "losing". The Kansas City mention: "In Kansas City, Mo., our old friend Robert W. Finn cut a deal with prosecutors to avoid a second round of criminal charges and possible jail time in connection with his cover-up of priest Shawn Rattigan’s unholy habit of taking photographs of prepubescent girls’ private parts which he stored on the Church’s computer. Bishop Finn will have to report weekly to said prosecutor to detail every suspicious episode involving abuse of a child in his diocese for the next 5-years, although Bishop Finn had already agreed to do this in writing, but failed, leaving his shutterbug priest to abuse more children after the photographs were discovered. So far bishops of Catholic diocese have cut deals to avoid similar prosecution in Manchester, N.H., Phoenix, Az, Santa Rosa, Ca, and Boston, Mass." The good news? We got yet more coverage of the travesty that is this local situation. The bad news? These people will, likely, get away with their further sexual abuse of the children in their own churches they were to be guiding, mentoring and teaching--children that should have been protected by these "leaders". Link: http://www.ywgrossman.com/photoblog/?p=2165