Why has the Justice Dept. announced an investigation of the Pennsylvania dioceses recently investigated by that state's attorney general?
New York Times.
"The Justice Department has
opened an investigation into Roman Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania
accused of covering up sex abuse for decades, a significant escalation
in scrutiny of the church.
"The
inquiry is believed to be the first statewide investigation by the
federal government of the church’s sex abuse problems. [Underlining mine.] And it comes two
months after the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office released an
explosive grand jury report charging that bishops and other church
leaders had covered up the abuse of more than 1,000 people over a period
of more than 70 years."
Has the Trump Justice Dept. been infilitrated by the Bannon-Burke Alliance discussed by Massimo Fagglioni.
Commonweal: "The Catholic opposition to Pope Francis is headquartered in the United States. It is a minority within the U.S. Church, but it is well organized. Its main intellectual organ is First Things, its episcopal leader Archbishop Chaput. But just as nineteenth-century European ultramontanists looked beyond the Alps to Rome, this movement is looking beyond the Atlantic. Besides the sympathetic Catholic journalists who spread archbishop Vigano's "testimony" on August 27, there are also more overtly partisan leaders of this movement, such as Cardinal Raymond Burke and Stephen Bannon, Donald Trump’s former chief strategist. Burke and Bannon are collaborating on a new right-wing Roman Catholic organization in Rome, the Dignitatis Humanae Institute. Bannon is one of its leaders; Burke is president of its board of advisers. The institute has been described by its founders as an “academy for the Judeo-Christian West.”
Action Francaise = Etats-Unis Premier?
ReplyDeleteNot impossible, but if so, it isn't Bannon and Burke but the money behind them. It is passing strange that the Justice Department would take an interest in something the Pennsylvania attorney general is only using as a wedge to change the statute of limitations there. Is the Justice Department thinking in terms of the RICO statute -- taking down the Church as a Racketeer Influnced Corrupt Organization? If it can't prosecute individuals, upon what theory is it working? Since Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions III got into the saddle, the Justice Department has done and said a number of weird things unrelated to the Church. So maybe it's just a weird thing related to the Church.
It is likely a RICO investigation. The idea has been around for a while. Back in 2002-2005 a friend who had contacts with the FBI said there was some interest in the idea.
ReplyDeleteMore recently (two years ago) the DA for Eastern PA was considering the idea. The DA for Western PA was considering it for the Altoona Diocese.
The PA grand jury investigation which highlighted the corruption of the Bishop has sent a strong signal across the nation. A lot of other prosecutors in other states are looking into the issue.
Prosecution of high profile cases whether at the state or federal level is a pathway to a political career.
I guess I'm not able to draw a straight line between the work of Bannon and Burke, which I take to be an anti-Francis initiative, and the feds in PA. I don't think the sex-abuse scandals break either left or right - it's bipartisan awfulness.
ReplyDeleteThe money behind Bannon and Burke would not target PA. Chaput of Philadelphia is a far more credible leader than Burke for the opposition to Francis.
ReplyDeleteThe Federal Probe is from 2001 to the present. That means that it could easily drag in Chaput. He had better have been extremely good in his handling of everything to avoid prosecution.
When it comes to coverup, both liberal and conservative bishops have been willing participants. Both have been willing to plead to making mistakes by listening to psychologists and lawyers. Are they now going to acknowledge that they have been part of organized crime?
By the way while Francis is big on mercy for sinners, he is not for mercy for the "corrupt" such as the mafia.
I believe Chaput has been pretty outspoken in the past against victims advocates, including Marci Hamilton, whom I've seen quoted in one or two of these stories. So it wouldn't surprise me if he has a bull's-eye on him. (One of the things I am wondering about is whether the feds undertook this investigation of their own volition, or if they are responding to a complaint from victims.)
DeleteI didn't follow the story particularly closely at the time, but my recollection of a previous attempt to prosecute Philly church officials was that a priest from the chancery chose to fall on his sword, which had the effect, intended or not, of shielding his higher-ups (including one of Chaput's predecessors) from jeopardy.
My supposition is that, despite the PA Attorney General's public rhetoric, a RICO case against church officials would be difficult to make stick. Fundamentally, I don't think the church is an organized criminal organization. The couple of news stories I've seen on this new fed probe is that it would focus on interstate aspects of abuse. I assume that would mean dioceses transferring abusive priests across state lines to dioceses out of PA? Or maybe someone like McCarrick taking his victims out of state for his horrible games of musical beds (although McCarrick isn't implicated in the PA scandals as far as I know, so maybe that's not an apposite example). Maybe those are federal crimes, but I don't know that it adds up to a conspiracy.
Yes RICO applied to church officials would be breaking new ground. However from what I know its actually people who understand RICO who have seriously considered it. It is not just victims and their advocates.
DeleteFrom what I know by hearsay of what bishops have done, as a non lawyer it seems to add up to conspiracy. They systematically lied to victims, intimidated them, paid them off, moved priests from place to place, diocese to diocese etc.
The more I think about Bannon-Burke, and Chaput, the less I think about the theory any of them pushed the feds to turn over rocks in Pennsylvania. There is no way to keep the sainted John Paul II and emeritus Benedict out of it. Seems to all American Catholics have fish that might get fried in Justice's auto-de-fe.
ReplyDeleteOf course, now that the probe has been unsheathed, you have to think somebody is behind it.
The politician who could strike fear into the hearts of bishops might be a good candidate for moneyed interests.
Delete"Who's behind it?" That's what brought on the morning attack of paranoia. Maybe Mueller will toss it into his project.
ReplyDeleteHaven't heard much from Mueller lately. Not sure if that portends anything other than he's managed to seal the leaks.
DeleteBut I thought the conspiracy theory on that front was that he was going to toss a grenade, or a nuke, into the mid-term election. The clock is ticking/calendar pages are flipping. He might have missed his window.
According to this Mueller will wait until after the election to deliver his report, probably to avoid accusations that he tried to influence the outcome of the elections. However his window is very narrow, because Session's days appear to be numbered. I expect that Mueller will wind things up as soon as the votes are tallied.
DeleteWhile the moneyed people who are out to get Francis might not have launched the probe, they will take advantage of it.
ReplyDeleteSome money is behind the idea of collecting information on all the cardinal electors to intimidate them into not electing anyone "vetoed" by the moneyed people.
They are also organizing to try to establish and control any institution that might investigate American bishops.
So they could add fear to all the financial incentives that they already have to control American bishops and cardinals worldwide. Off course a lot of those cardinals are from poor countries for whom American money may not be a plus. And, of course, Francis has shown himself very good at finding cardinals who are outside the establishment. He might have been very foresighted.
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — While U.S. Justice Department follows up on subpoenas it issued to eight Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania in the priest sex abuse scandal, seeking private files and records, victim advocates point to what they call a culture of silence and coverup. There is some speculation as to whether a tool used to take down mobsters could come into play.
ReplyDeleteFormer prosecutors and defense lawyers involved in famous Philadelphia mob cases in the 1980s, mostly centering on Nicodemo Scarfo, the former crime family boss, shared some thoughts on whether the feds will employ the federal RICO statute. The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, was originally passed to bring down the Mafia.
Most agree that it would be "interesting if the feds employ the RICO tool, to go after the upper hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church." To prove a RICO violation, prosecutors must prove a pattern of criminal activity in two or more predicate acts connected to the enterprise. While there may be a statute of limitations dating back just ten years, a former leading prosecutor says if one of them is within the time frame, the others can date back to infinity. He adds the "Roman Catholic Church is as much an enterprise as the mob."
It's hard for me to make the leap from *situations that were handled very badly* to organized crime. It's also hard not to see anti-Catholicism at work in applying RICO.
DeleteBack in the 70s there was a pop-psychology book around called "The Games People Play". It was memorable, if for no other reason, than the names of the games. One of the games was called "Now I've Got You, You S.O.B." Self explanatory title.
Well, it's an attention getting effort, going after the RCC. I would have more respect for this if equal effort were made going after too-big-to-fail Wall Street banks. Like Tom Blackburn says, there's a lot of other presently ongoing nasty things that AREN'T being addressed. Certainly, lots of people on all sides would like to see the RCC brought to heel.
Deletehttps://www.wcjb.com/content/news/Feds-Child-exploitation-focus-of-Pennsylvania-church-probe-498049021.ht
ReplyDeletePHILADELPHIA (AP) — Two years ago, a federal prosecutor in Pittsburgh considered filing a racketeering lawsuit against a Roman Catholic diocese over its handling of child sex-abuse complaints, but left office before he could make the bold move.
However, a colleague in Philadelphia is now taking aim at the church this month, sending grand jury subpoenas to dioceses throughout Pennsylvania as he tries to build a federal criminal case centered on child exploitation.
"It's a courageous move, whenever prosecutors take on something that there's no precedent for, that is uncertain. You're investing resources with potentially no return. But it needs to be done," said David Hickton, the former U.S. attorney in Pittsburgh who looked at the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese in 2016.
McSwain, among other things, wants to know if any priests took children across state lines for sex; viewed child pornography; reassigned predators; or used church funds or assets to cover up sexual misconduct. He has demanded the church turn over files from any "Secret Archives," along with financial, personnel and treatment records. And he expects to take testimony from church leaders.
While the subpoenas hint at possible charges of sexual exploitation of minors and fraud, legal experts said that if federal prosecutors can show that church leaders systematically covered up for child-molesting priests in the past five years, dioceses could also be charged under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, the law originally passed to bring down the Mafia.