Philadelphia's Smoking Gun

It doesn't really matter whether it was created under his tenure, unless of course, there is also a letter which expressly disavows it and forbids its use.

Just when one thinks the scandal can not get worse, it does. May God save the Catholic Church from its own "leaders."

Confidentiality or Nondisclosure agreements are normally used by organizations, such as corporations to prevent employees from divulging trade secrets, company proprietary information, etc. This documents appears to prevent employees of the Archdiocese from reporting criminal activity to law enforcement. I wonder at the legality of the document: since it appears intended to prevent people from reporting crimes. I would be interested what the Courts of the State of Pennsylvania would have to say about this. I would bet that the Courts would declare this document to be nonenforceable, since it appears to prevent people from preventing crimes to lawful authorities. An aggressive prosecutor might even go after the Archdiocese under the RICO statute which was designed to go after mobsters.

This whole situation gets worse and worse. Cardinal Rigali should step down immediately, and a Bishop from outside the Archdiocese should be brought in to take over on an interim basis. Somebody who has no affiliation with the Philadelphia Archdiocese and who is of impeccable integrity, such as Cardinal O'Malley. Of course, how many messes can we expect this man to clean up?

Given everything that has happened, in Boston, Philadelphia, Ireland, Germany and elsewhere, the Hierarchy has lost credability with the laity to the point, where few laymen will listen anymore. In matters of sexuality, for the Hierarchy to attempt to crack down on say contraception will be met with contempt and outright hostility by most of the laity.

We are at a crossroads and the more intelligent Bishops know it. The yes men will pretend that everything is fine and continue to crack down on the laity and priests who dare to speak up, but the game is over and they know it. The absolute monarchy model with no input from the laity is not working and everyone knows it. The yes men of the Curia will circle the wagons and refuse to make even the smallest changes. The thing is, it's too late for that. Even my elderly, Irish Catholic mother in law is fed up and is speaking out.

Cracking down and threatening people will no longer work. An organization cannot be run on fear alone. It must have a certain moral authority and the ability to persuade. The Hierarchy has lost that, and there is no plan B.
The more intelligent and courageous Bishops know that now is the time for bold action, but there will be none. The erosion will continue and only get worse.
The snide yes men of the Curia will pretend that everything is fine, and everyone will know this is a lie.

I was not able to read the document itself, but it is not unreasonable for the Archdiocese to, as a condition of employment, prohibit employees from relating to the police information about alleged sexual abuse if, in fact, the Archdiocese arranged for a point of contact between the Archdiocese itself and the authorities concerning such matters. It is not unreasonable, in my opinion, to discourage employees from going to the police or the prosecutor based on gossip or hearsay about sexual abuse that may (or may not) be accurate. Indeed, I would not be surprised if the parent company of the television station that is flacking the story has a similar internal policy with respect to the discovery of criminal (or potentially criminal) behavior within its family of companies. Corporations and organizations have chains of command for dealing with issues of criminal behavior, and it is not, in of itself, a "cover-up" to insist that employees abide by the chain of command - - though obviously such policies could be misused by the organizations that implement them.

Well, it looks like the handiwork of civil and canon lawyer "Tony the B" as opposed to that of the present tenant. However, I wouldn't buy that "Just R" wasn't aware of it and its use.

Boston, often referred to as the cradle of America, may soon lose it's very much tarnished image as the priestly pedophile capitol of America as scandal after scandal continues to plague the Not-so-city of Brotherly Love as much as the city of priestly pedophile love.

Pittsburgh will be the next city hard hit by similar scandals. The mob, democrat party and what's left of the Lavender Don's (Donald Wuerl) diciples will not stop the flow of information.

Mike Ference

Just watched the dramatisation off Brendan Smyth (Nearly called the animal father) on BBC. How the Church hierarchy can continue to close ranks and not expose those who were involved in the cover up is disgusting. The people who covered it up are as guilty as the animals who abused the children. When will those at the top realise that exposing the cover up and telling the truth is the only way the Church can continue and be trusted again. All priests are being treated with suspicion yet the vast majority are good decent men. I dont care if it means his Holiness the Pope standing down, either the Church exposes all the collaborators or i and a lot like me will never be back.

St Mary's Parish
Glengormley
Belfast
Ireland

I don't see why this would be a 'smoking gun.'

This may very well apply to 'stale' claims, as the attorney in the television report explained.

Another important thing: There is nothing on the form prohibiting accusers from going to the police themselves.

And is there a reason that the television station could not have waited until it had a response from the Archdiocese before reporting this? It is a bit suspicious that the document just-so-happpened to surface late on a Friday afternoon.