LOS ANGELES (CA)
Justia Verdict
[Archive of Los Angeles Archdiocesan Documents – BishopAccountability.org]
Marci A. Hamilton
The Release of the Los Angeles Archdiocese’s Records Relating to Clergy Child Sex Abuse: The Insights It Reveals, and Why the Justice System Deserves Great Credit Here
The Earth moved in Los Angeles recently, without a flicker of the Richter scale. Files of the Los Angeles Archdiocese were released as part of a civil case in which members of the hierarchy were named, and their unforgivable actions described in their own words. These men knew about child-predator priests who gravely harmed dozens, if not hundreds, of victims, and they never once called the police before the year 2000. Instead, they helped one pedophile priest escape the country, suggested sending another to a therapist who was also a lawyer so as to ensure that attorney-client privilege would apply, and let another simply melt into the general population after returning from treatment. The details, reported by The Los Angeles Times,are nauseating.
These files are just the beginning of the earthshaking information still to be released in Los Angeles, as the revelations I have described above are from just one individual case. Soon, the files that were supposed to be released as part of the massive 2007 settlement between 550 survivors and the Archdiocese will also become public. While the Archdiocese pushed hard to have the names of the members of the hierarchy redacted in those files, the press fought back in court and won. Now, these additional files will be also released, and likely will be just as searing as the few just now released.
I know, I know. At this point in history, learning that bishops failed to protect children from priest child predators is something that, to quote Capt. Reynaud in Casablanca, “I’m shocked, shocked to find.” The bigger picture though, is where I would like my reader to look now. The truth about child sex abuse in our culture is pouring in; where did it come from?
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