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Home Page > Blogs > News blogs > People and Politics > Time for Bill Donohue and Catholic Church to stop smearing victims --Also attacking journalists Maureen Dowd and Chris Matthews

People and Politics by Patrick Roberts

Time for Bill Donohue and Catholic Church to stop smearing victims --Also attacking journalists Maureen Dowd and Chris Matthews

Posted on Saturday, September 24, 2011 at 10:48 PM

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In the course of a long diatribe against Rolling Stone for publishing an article on the seamy sex scandal currently unfolding in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia the Catholic League's Bill Donohue takes time to side swipe Maureen Dowd of The New York Times and Chris Matthews of MSNBC for their previous coverage of church scandals.

He also crosses the line attacking one of the victims of the child sexual abuse.

The Rolling Stone article by Sabrina Rubin Erdely is a well researched honest assessment of one of the most damaging scandals to hit the Catholic Church in the US.

It concerns the shenanigans in Philadelphia where pedophile priests were moved around different parishes in order to protect the archdiocese against sexual abuse claims.

It is especially notable in one respect of course that the the monsignor who allegedly did most of the covering-up is named in the indictment. That is the first time that the alleged diocesan enabler of abuse has been fingered.

Monsignor William Lynn has already admitted he lied in grand jury testimony he gave when covering up for priests when victims families questioned him.

In other words he is guilty as charged.

Donohue as usual ignores the cover-up and employs his favorite McCarthyite tactic of smearing those who uncovered the horrific crimes.

But he goes further and smears the victim too.

He writes "Those who want to stick it to the Catholic Church like to offer a graphic depiction of the alleged sex acts that priests reportedly engaged in with their victims. Catholics like Maureen Dowd and Chris Matthews have played this card with precision, but they are no match for Erdely.

"She treats the Rolling Stone readers to some of the most salacious renderings imaginable, drawing from the grand jury testimony of "Billy," a man who claims he was worked over by two priests and one lay teacher, beginning when he was 10.

Billy of course gets smeared in the following paragraphs as well. I won't even dignify what Donahue wrote by reprinting it.

It is time for the church,who are clearly approving of Donohue's attacks to rein him in.

He is doing their cause no justice smearing victims and launching vicious attacks on journalists who are doing their job uncovering corruption and abuse in the Catholic Church.

One can understand the church defending its position but when its main mouth piece is smearing child victims of clerical sex abuse it is surely time to put a stop to it.

The church does not need inquisitors like Donohue and his poison pen.

It needs men like Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who confronts the allegations heads on, responds with generosity and genuine compassion for victims and tries to move on.

The American church could learn much from him.

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52 comments

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ripley838 | Sep 26, 2011, 02:30 PM EDT

Bill Donohue is the head of the Catholic League, an organization consisting of exactly one member, himself. Why does any media outlet kowtow to this bully?

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eiriamach | Sep 26, 2011, 12:14 PM EDT

SingleDonald, you and I would agree on almost everything, I think, except statutes of limitations. There are good reasons for discarding all time limits on filing charges of sex abuse and other abuses of children. Children are often under the control of their abusers until they reach legal age, and when the abuser is a close relative or strong authority figure, or has succeeded in frightening the child into keeping the abuse secret for years, the psychological trauma can trigger repression. Then it may be years after the abuse ends before the child can re-construct clear memories of what the abuser did, when and where, etc. And the 'return of the repressed' in such cases is also traumatic, so the young adult may need years of treatment just to gain a clear idea of the justice due in the case. The more I think about it, the more I think that there should be no statutes of limitations on such crimes against children.

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falconflash | Sep 26, 2011, 10:37 AM EDT

Freedom of speech is a terrible thing for liberals to see in action, they actually want to ban it.

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Suivness10 | Sep 26, 2011, 10:35 AM EDT

Bill Donohue is a jackass. Anybody who know him knows that. Nothing new here.

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falconflash | Sep 26, 2011, 08:27 AM EDT

eph, what have you done about abortion? most likely looked the other way, a sort of coverup, no? the bloold of innocents is on your hands.....

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EphraimKibbey | Sep 25, 2011, 11:47 PM EDT

Pt. II - When one conspires to commit a crime, to allow it to happen or to cover up a crime that person becomes complicit it that crime and is also a criminal. All those involved in any way in this orgy of criminal activity should be given a fair trial. If found guilty, they should be imprisoned as would anyone of the laity, with whose souls they were entrusted, would be if they committed, or were complicit in, this crime. "Benefit of Clergy" should be left in the Middle Ages, along with feudalism and other archaic ideas. This moment should be seen by all catholics as a chance to weed out an evil that has tainted the RCC for too long now. The longer the church waits to root out the evil, the more faithful will be driven away. Matthew 18:9 - And if your eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from you: it is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.

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EphraimKibbey | Sep 25, 2011, 11:43 PM EDT

Pt. I - Patrick Roberts, thanks for writing the article. I had not heard of Donohue. It is interesting that some commenters on here refer to him as right wing. I would have thought that this evil would have transended political partisanship. Also, some of the commenters here need to read the dictionary before posting. Homosexuals are adults who are sexually attracted to adults of the same sex. Pedophiles are adults who are sexually attracted to children. Priests who have intercourse with other priests could be called homosexuals. The priests and their enablers mentioned in this article and in Rolling Stone, are Pedophiles. Sex with anyone under the age of consent is legally called rape so they are also rapists.

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falconflash | Sep 25, 2011, 11:18 PM EDT

single don, i wss referrring to jamthecat, not you. your letter is respectful toward the Church.

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SingleDonald | Sep 25, 2011, 11:13 PM EDT

Both barneyjo & Eiriamach made some good points. It DOES seem like a witch hunt to bring accusations against people that are decades old! How can the allegations be either proven or disproven? That's why statutes of limitations exist, which were upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, a few years ago. Father Ritter, as I have previously mentioned, was guilty of offenses against minors. He was not a pedophile, as all of his targets were boys past puberty. His accuser was 26, posing as a 21-year old, in order to avail himself of the benefits of Covenant House. Vatican II did not act fast enough, in recognizing human sexuality as something other than sinful, or in the respect for women. In fact, some conservative Catholics still take Matthew, 5:28 literally, as well as the Confesasions of St. Augustine, in believing in the evil nature of anything sexual, outside of marriage. Progress for women has been slow, and long overdue. The basic respect men should have for women is not compromised by sexual fantasies, or consensual activities, outside of marriage. Neither is it hurt by women advancing in the Church; we may someday see female priests. Vatican II got the ball rolling on these matters, but still has a long way to go, 48 years later!

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jamthecat | Sep 25, 2011, 10:49 PM EDT

1. The sexual molestation of a child is wrong, no matter who does it. Period. 2. The vast, vast, vast majority of pedophiles are heterosexual. So says the FBI and just about any police organization that keeps track of these things. 3. It was the church hierarchy refusing to deal with the issue of child rape and instead just reassigning priests to other parishes so they could keep molesting that made this a problem with the church. You can find pedophiles coaching basketball, swim teams and soccer practice. The difference is, when some jerk does something wrong with a kid in those areas, he's put in jail, not coddled and protected. 4. Jesus himself said you should not offend a child, so anyone who does or who defends someone who has is spitting in the face of Christ.

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falconflash | Sep 25, 2011, 10:00 PM EDT

I meant to say homos were a CANCER, sorry for the mistake.....

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falconflash | Sep 25, 2011, 09:59 PM EDT

The Church got burned by being kinder and gentler to the homos in its midst.......back to the old days we knew that homos were a caner upon any organization. The Church gave them entry, and now are paying the price. But someone once said the Church would survive and I beieve Him..............

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Collette2 | Sep 25, 2011, 09:42 PM EDT

Ever hear of the sayng: the man does protest too much? I'll bet he's right up there in front with the maintaining of the secrecy of the confessional. As far as Pio is concerned, I leave my options open, Garanbandal's warning of the Bishop leading many to hell sounds spot on, preventing their priests from owning up to what they've done and covering up their crimes. Maybe Donohue has a brother a bishop.... or at least a priest.

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JudyJones | Sep 25, 2011, 09:08 PM EDT

Thank you for writing this article. Judy Jones. SNAP USA

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eiriamach | Sep 25, 2011, 05:25 PM EDT

The RC Church was "invaded by liberalism since Vatican II," according to PiperMac52. A massive delusion! Vatican II was an attempt by many, including some liberals, to bring RCC into the modern world: for example, to acknowledge the equal moral worth of women, to help the Church deal with human sexuality rather than simply ignoring the existence of it or demonizing it, to heal divisions among global Christian communities, and to provide spiritual resources to laity for their ministry of transforming secular work and social spheres into humane environments. The sexual abuse scandal could never have reached the global proportions it has reached if Vatican II reforms had been carried out. The John Jay Commission reduced the age of puberty in order to reduce the number of pre-pubescent "children" raped by priests. That ploy fools no one; a man who sexually exploits an 11-year-old is a predator and a pedophile, whether homosexual or heterosexual, as much as a man who rapes a younger child. It's amazing to realize, as Sabrina Erdely points out, that Monsignor William Lynn is the first RCC cleric prosecuted in the USA for covering up priests' sexual abuse (read Erdeley's article in 'Rolling Stone'). The only memory being "repressed" here is the Church's memory of its appalling guilt, which began with the conservative resistance to reform half a century ago and continues with Donohue's paltry attacks on the press for its scrutiny, which is the closest thing to justice the victims may ever have!

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