No priest is safe

"Someone who levels a false accusation, for the sake of money or to harm the Church, deserves to burn in Hell for eternity." - Father Zuhlsdorf

Link:

• No priest is safe - The Catholic League

Related:

• A Word to Biters of the Consecrated Hand
• Dignity of Priesthood

Fr. Gordon MacRae: The Truth Will Set You Free (If Someone Prints It!)

From Father Gordon Macrae:

..The Jesuit weekly news magazine, America has devoted much space to Catholic scandal, even giving a platform to the extreme views of Marci Hamilton who has championed the causes of SNAP and some contingency lawyers. Meanwhile, America editors have consistently ignored developments in my case. Even my occasional letter to the editor in response to its one-sided articles has been ignored. We published one, “A Letter America magazine would not publish,” under “Commentary” here on These Stone Walls. I recently wrote asking that my subscription to America be cancelled. Even that was ignored.

Editors at Commonweal magazine, on the other hand, at least had the grace to respond to a news development in my regard that was sent to them. In an e-mail response to writer, Ryan MacDonald, a Commonweal editor bluntly wrote, “We will not be covering the story of Father Gordon MacRae.” So be it. At least now we know, and I can stop this incessant barking.

I am fortunate to have the attention of a few Catholic writers who join me in my exasperation with the Catholic news media. Both David F. Pierre of The Media Report and Ryan A. MacDonald of A Ram in the Thicket have told me that they think it is an important news story that evidence now shows that a Catholic priest in America has been falsely accused and wrongly held in prison for eighteen years. However, getting someone in the Catholic press to write about this new evidence has been an incredibly frustrating ordeal.

David Pierre’s recent book, Catholic Priests Falsely Accused, has a chapter detailing information on the case against me – information that for some unknown reason has been omitted from almost all other accounts of this case. Father James Valladares’ new book, Hope Springs Eternal in the Priestly Breast, devoted about a third of its content to coverage of my case and These Stone Walls. However, reviews of both books are conspicuously absent from the pages of too many Catholic newspapers now trumpeting sordid and distorted headlines like the ones described above in a Catholic magazine.

On February 20, 2012, David Pierre published a news story at The Media Report entitled “Exclusive Report: Alarming New Evidence May Exonerate Imprisoned Priest.” David Pierre spent many hours doing something he knew most in the news media would not bother to do. He poured over hundreds of pages of new investigative documents about my trial and new appeal now published at the National Center for Reason and Justice, a wrongful conviction organization that endorses and helps sponsor my defense as well as These Stone Walls.

David Pierre submitted his summary of my new appeal and its new evidence to most of the secular news outlets in New England that had been covering the story of accused priests. Predictably, most of them ignored it. One commendable exception, however, was the news team at WMUR-TV News in New Hampshire which aired a factually truthful news report (which takes a few moments to load if you click on it)...  (continued)

Read More at These Stone Walls (click here)

Link:

• The Catholic Press Needs to Get 
Over Its Father Maciel Syndrome

Related:

• Fr. Gordon MacRae: Federal Court to Hear Oral Arguments in Habeas Corpus Appeal
• Priests are victims too, Vatican told
• Bishop Takes Pawn: Plundering The Rights of a Prisoner-Priest (Father Gordon MacRae)
• Father Gordon MacRae's These Stone Walls - Musings From Prison of a Priest Falsely Accused
• Alarming New Evidence May Exonerate Imprisoned Priest
• Special Report: New Appeal Filed in the Case of Fr. Gordon MacRae
• New Trial Motion Filed for Father Gordon MacRae
• Memorandum of Law in Support of a Motion for a New Trial (.pdf)
• Thy Brother’s Keeper: Why Wrongful Convictions Should Matter to You
• Trial by Therapists - by Ryan A. MacDonald
• Dr. Bill Donohue Discussing Fr. Gordon MacRae and SNAP on EWTN's The World Over
• A Touch of Deja Vu: The Case against Rev. Gordon MacRae - by Ryan A. MacDonald
• To Azazel: Father Gordon MacRae and the Gospel of Mercy - by Ryan A. MacDonald
• A Priest and His Wounds: Padre Pio Under Investigation
• SNAP Judgments Part II: Ground Zero of the Catholic Scandal 
• SNAP Judgements Part I: Catholic Priests Among the Public Ruins - by Fr. Gordon MacRae
• As The Year of the Priest Ends, Are Civil Liberties for Priests Intact?
• SNAP EXPOSED: Unmasking the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests - by William A. Donohue, Ph.D.

Priests are victims too, Vatican told

INTENSIVE RESEARCH:  Father James Valladares, at St. Paul of the Cross Church.  Picture by Matt Turner.

By Tom Bowden

(The Advertiser)  An Adelaide priest has urged the Vatican to dramatically improve the way it handles sexual abuse claims, saying current procedures mean innocent priests are being victimized.

Father James Valladares, who describe himself as a "survivors' advocate of sexual abuse," spent three months in the U.S. in his research into false accusations against the priesthood.

While he acknowledged there were many legitmiate victims of sexual abuse by the priesthood, there was an equal number of claims made by those seeking financial gain, he said. 

In this book, Hope Springs Eternal in the Priestly Breast,  Father Valladares examines the problem of false allegations and urges the church to adopt a set procedure that would protect accuser and accused until an investigation was complete.  He found about half the accusations against priests were false, mostly because accusers were seeking money.

"False allegations do occur and such allegations are devastating to the accused," he said.

"Having said that, I do not wish to denigrate any of the harm that has been done - for that we are all very sincerely sorry. Our whole purpose now is to create a climate of trust and openness, transparency and acountability."

Father Valladares said the pendulum had swung too far from the church protecting an accused priest to the church immediately acting on behalf of an accuser since 2002 when a huge cover-up of sexual offenses became publc.  "I conducted this study to show that society is effectively tarring all priests with the same brush, using the allegations against a select few to discredit others," he said.

He said a priest falsely acused of sexual abuse or molestation was ruined for life.  "During my research, I found there are 1000 priests in America who are in limbo," he said.

"They have been acccused, there is no substantive evidence, they have not been charged, but they have been removed from minstry with no hope of being reinstated.

"These poor individuals have no financial income, they have nowhere to live, they have to rely on the hospitality and charity of relatives and friends.  It is a grave inustice.'

Father Valladares said a set procedure must be put in place so that the accused and accuser had their say and a proper investigation was conducted.

Confidentiality was essential as once accusations went public it was the "beginning of the end,"  he said.

"Procedure has to be faithfully followed to ensure justice to both the accuser and the accused.  Just examine the case rationally and objectively and honestly."

He said cases must be heard immediaely, with both sides having a say and a decision made.  Whatever was said must be put down in writing, so nothing was left open to misinterpretation.  Those found guilty must face grave consequences, including facing the law, but those found innocent would escape the blackening of their name.

Bigotry Explains False Accusations

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:

False accusations against priests are hardly uncommon these days, but when anti-Catholicism accounts for lies against lay Catholics, the problem only worsens. Consider the latest news concerning Tim Udinski.
After Udinski was fired as the lacrosse coach at Lansdale Catholic High School last year, he made several accusations over a seven-month period claiming that the football coach and the new lacrosse coach were sexually abusing students. He also maintained that the principal of the suburban Philadelphia school, Tim Quinn, knew about the offenses.

After detectives spent 184 hours on this case, interviewing 97 people (at a cost of more than $8250), they determined that the charges were bogus. Standing by itself, this wouldn’t be big news, but what makes it so disturbing is Udinski’s motive: he has admitted that he fabricated the whole story, just so he could “get the Church.”

Landsdale Catholic High is in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, and it was to the archdiocese that Udinski sent his anonymous e-mails. Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman acknowledged that Udinski sought to exploit the high profile that the sexual abuse of minors has been given. Indeed, she questioned, “How do you undo that? How do you unring the bell?”

Here’s the clincher. When asked why he lied, Udinski said, “I just wanted to get back at the church, Tim Quinn, and I was just generally mad.” (My italics.)

Over the past three years, 173 false accusations have been made against Catholic priests nationwide. Also, on July 6, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput stated that four of the six priests who were recently investigated were found suitable for ministry. Isn’t it time we learned the names of those who make false charges? And how do we “unring the bell” for all those priests—and lay persons—whose reputations have been smeared by merchants of bigotry and greed?

Link:

• BIGOTRY EXPLAINS FALSE ACCUSATIONS