BishopAccountability.org

Catholic Church Uses 7 Step Playbook For Concealing Truth About Predatory Priests

By Michael Stone
Patheos
August 16, 2018

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2018/08/catholic-church-uses-7-step-playbook-for-concealing-truth-about-predatory-priests/

[with video]

New grand jury report reveals the Catholic Church has a seven step playbook they use to conceal the truth about priests raping children.

It is now common knowledge that the Catholic Church has been protecting and enabling predatory priests for decades if not centuries. In so doing the Catholic Church is responsible for the rape and sexually abuse of countless children.

But now a new grand jury report released by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court explains the policy and procedures the Catholic Church uses to cover-up, deny, and obfuscate the epidemic of sexual abuse and rape of children by Catholic clergy.

The Los Angeles Times reports on the Catholic Church’s seven step playbook for concealing the truth about priests raping and sexually abusing children. The seven steps in the “playbook” are:

1) use euphemisms like “boundary issues” instead of “rape”

2) use fellow clergy to conduct investigations

3) send problem priests to church-run treatment centers

4) decline to say why abusive priests were removed

5) provide housing and living expenses for predator clergy

6) transfer problem priests to new dioceses

7) avoid reporting the priests to the police

The revelation that the Catholic Church has an official playbook they use to discredit and essentially re-victimize the victims of rape and sexual assault at the hands of Catholic clergy is appalling, but it is only one part of the horrific grand jury report detailing more than a thousand instances of sexual abuse allegedly committed by hundreds of priests in Pennsylvania.

And, of course, it is important to note that the rape and sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church is not unique to Pennsylvania. In fact, wherever there is a Catholic Church one can be certain there is at least one predatory priest that has been raping and sexually assaulting children, and many other clergy members willing to cover-up the abuse, always more concerned with protecting the tattered reputation of the corrupt church then the welfare of the children raped and abused by their colleagues.

Indeed, the grand jury report makes it clear that every level of Catholic leadership is complicit in the cover-up, ultimately protecting and enabling predatory priests:

Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all. For decades. Monsignors, auxiliary bishops, bishops, archbishops, cardinals have mostly been protected; many, including some named in this report, have been promoted. Until that changes, we think it is too early to close the book on the Catholic Church sex scandal.

Bottom line: The Catholic Church uses a seven step playbook for concealing the truth about priests raping and sexually abusing children. The playbook is an orchestrated and well thought out method to conceal the truth about priests raping children, and serves as further confirmation that the Catholic Church is a morally corrupt institution that victimizes and re-victimizes innocent children in the vain attempt to protect it’s tattered and dirty reputation.




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