PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Bilgrimage
Jerry Slevin has sent another outstanding posting commenting on the Philadelphia trial, which is in the process of wrapping up, and what that trial means at a fundamental level for the Catholic church worldwide and for its future. What follows is Jerry’s statement:
PHILLY CRIMINAL TRIAL:
For almost a decade now in Philadelphia, the birthplace of American religious and civil liberties, government prosecutors have been examining closely and carefully the Philadelphia Archdiocese’s medieval-style secret archives. The archives cover almost a half century of “problem priest” personnel, at times including files for almost a quarter of all Philly priests, who served under three Philly Princes of the Catholic Church, Cardinals Rigali, Bevilacqua, and Krol. This long prosecutorial effort has culminated in the just completed landmark multi-month criminal trial of a former top hierarchical official, with more criminal trials and likely many related civil lawsuits to follow. The trial has been well reported by Philadelphia Inquirer journalists in a brief review here and over a three month period in detail here. The pope has just tried to soften the significant adverse publicity from the trial and to preserve his Philly Catholic donor base by announcing a papal visit to Philadelphia in 2015, which already has been poorly received by many outraged Philly Catholics, as reported here.
The Philly trial court heard dozens of witnesses, including sexual abuse survivors, under oath. Prosecutors introduced as evidence hundreds of previously undisclosed documents from the Cardinals’ secret priest personnel archives. The trial revelations ranged from graphic details of nauseating and disgraceful assaults on children by priest predators, who had been previously known to the Cardinals to present serious safety risks for defenseless children, to shameless collusive document-shredding and almost limitless lying by top officials, as the dark side of the Philly clerical child sexual abuse scandal and its hierarchical cover-up was fully and relentlessly exposed.
PHILLY CARDINALS:
Each of the three Philly Cardinals had similar life experiences as they ambitiously climbed the hierarchical ladder. Each had received a prestigious Roman Gregorian University graduate education. Each in varying degrees for many years had been close to the current pope, Benedict XVI, and to his immediate predecessor, John Paul II, as well as to other major Roman curial Cardinals.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.