Catholic Abuse News - McCarricks' Paedophile Sex Ring

Theodore McCarrick, 1997

Credit: Steve Auchard/NorthJersey.com

Theodore McCarrick: Lawsuit alleges ex-cardinal ran NJ sex ring | USA Today

Former Cardinal, now plain Mr Theodore McCarrick, still, pending Cardinal Pell's defrocking, the most senior Catholic cleric to be defrocked by the Vatican because of his involvement in child sex abuse, is now facing court action in Essex County, New Jersey, USA, accused of running a sex ring at his New Jersey beach home.

He is being sued by one of his victims who alleges in the papers presented to the court that he was abused by McCarrick and three other priests at his home in Sea Girt, in the early 1980s. McCarrick has been accused of bringing adult seminarians to his home and harassing them during overnight stays, as well as abusing children. It was these allegations that led to McCarrick being stripped of his title by the Pope.

The unnamed plaintiff alleges that he was abused by two other clerics, including the former Essex Catholic High School principal, who introduced him to McCarrick on the pretext that McCarrick would help him pay for his school tuition.

The lawsuit alleges that the abuse began when McCarrick was bishop of the Metuchen Archdiocese. He later became Archbishop of Newark and later Archbishop of Washington, when he became a Cardinal and essentially the senior Catholic cleric in the USA. However, it emerged two years ago that allegations about McCarrick's predatory sexual behaviour were known to the the Catholic Church when Newark Archbishop Joseph Tobin admitted that allegations of sexual abuse against him had been settled secretly many years before.

McCarrick is also facing two other lawsuits in New Jersey alleging that he sexually abused boys. These lawsuits have been filed under a new law that took effect last December, suspending the statute of limitations for two years. More than 100 such lawsuits have been filed under this law against all five of the state's diocese. Four of the five priests name in the Newark lawsuits have previously faces allegations of child sexual abuse. They are Gerald Ruane, Michael Walters and John Laferrera, all accused of abusing boys aged between 14 and 16 at McCarrick's beach home. Gerald Ruane has since died as has the fourth accused, the former Principal of Essex Catholic High School, Brother Andrew Thomas Hewitt. The fifth person named is Anthony Nardino, accused of abusing a boy aged 11 years old and a parishioner at St. Francis Xavier in Newark in 1978. Nardino has since left the priesthood.

The lawyer acting for the boys alleges that McCarrick began abusing the boy shortly after they met in 1982. The boy was “taken on overnight and weekend trips” to the beach house in Sea Girt.

“McCarrick assigned sleeping arrangements, choosing his victims from the boys, seminarians and clerics present at the beach house,” the suit said. “Minor boys were assigned to different rooms and paired with adult clerics.”

The lawsuit alleged that the Catholic Church knew of McCarrick's abuses for many years and that Pope Benedict XVI placed restrictions on McCarrick. And this is where the affair begins to close in on Pope Francis. The disgruntled and embittered Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has claimed that both Pope Francis and his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, knew of the sexual abuses by McCarrick but allowed him to continue in his role as the senior American Catholic Catholic cleric. Viganò has alleged that Pope Benedict XVI, now in seclusion as self-style Pope Emeritus in the Vatican, the first pope to resign in 600 years and giving Catholicism the unique experience of having two Popes in the Vatican, placed McCarrick under restraint and that that restraint was removed by Pope Francis, even though he too knew of McCarrick's predatory sexual activities.

Pope Francis has remained silent on the Viganò allegations, probably to protect Pope Benedict XVI, because Benedict is in the double bind position that if he did not know anything about McCarrick's activities then he should have known and if he did but did nothing he was culpable. However, if he did know and did do something, then he is in the clear but Francis is dropped in the mire.

It may be remembered how right-wing conservative Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò fell from favour when he effectively ambushed and embarrassed Pope Francis on a visit to the USA by arranging a meeting with right-wing extremist fundamentalist, Kim Davies, in which Francis appeared to give support to her campaign of refusing to register same-sex marriages, despite their legality and despite a court order instructing her to do so. It appeared that the Pope was interfering in the legal process of the USA as a guest in the country, giving him a less than triumphal end to an otherwise successful official visit. The affair effectively ended Viganò's career and put paid to the hope he had to become a cardinal and the Papal legate to the USA. As a former Vatican staffer, Viganò's toadying and naked ambition had already made him several powerful enemies.

It will be interesting to see whether any more information emerges in court, to shed light on the truth or otherwise of Viganò's allegations. No doubt, the Vatican will be taking a close interest in proceedings. One Pope or the other could well end up with egg on his face as the Pope who did nothing while McCarrick ran his cosy beach-side paedophile sex ring.

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Catholic Child Abuse News - Fiji's Predatory Priests

Father Peter Loy Chong, Archbishop of Suva, Fiji.
"No allegations and we have procedures..."

Historic child sex abuse in Fiji’s Catholic schools uncovered | 1 NEWS | TVNZ

New Zealand TV has uncovered another major child sex abuse scandal involving Catholic priests, this time at a Catholic boys' school on the pacific island of Fiji.

One victim told TV1 News that Catholic priests would lure boys into their bedrooms with gifts of candy and oranges (a rare luxury on the island) and would then sexually assault them. Shocking though that is, it's come to be expected, where Catholic priests have power over children and unsupervised access to them.

But perhaps the worst aspect of the case is that these predatory paedophiles were sent to Fiji in the time-honoured Catholic Church method for dealing with sex-abuse scandals - move the offenders to a different, unsuspecting location and allow them to carry on with their recreational abuse of minors.

Southern Baptist Paedophile Convention

This collection of mug shots includes a portion of the 218 people who, since 1998, worked or volunteered in Southern Baptist churches and were convicted of or pleaded guilty to sex crimes.

Source: Houston Cronicle

Bellevue Baptist sued after volunteer coordinator sexually abuses teenager

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is the largest Protestant organisation in the USA and has a record of child sexual abuse resembling that of an average Catholic archdioceses. Since 1998, 218 people who worked for Southern Baptist churches have either been convicted of or pleaded guilty to, paedophile sex crimes.

All too familiar is the case of 43-year-old James Hook, a paid volunteer coordinator with the crown jewel church in the SBC, Bellevue Baptist Church, who was discovered under a blanket in his car with a 15 year-old girl volunteer. He was later convicted of sexual assault and given a six-month sentence followed by 4.5 years probation. Now the girl's parents are suing the church for failure to protect their daughter.

According to this report in Memphis Commercial Appeal:

A Life Damaged by Christianity - Rev. Louis Sheldon

Rev. Louis P. Sheldon,
Leading homophobe and persecutor of the LGBTQ community, dies aged 85.

Rev. Louis Sheldon, Who Fiercely Battled “the Homosexual Agenda,” Is Dead at 85 | Terry Firma | Friendly Atheist | Patheos

Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, founder of the extreme homophobic Traditional Values Coalition, has died, aged 85. Few in the LGBTQ community will mourn his passing.

Preacher of hate, Rev. Sheldon has dedicated his life to promoting the bullying, alienation, demonization and stigmatising of homosexuals, based entirely on a passage in the Christian Bible that appears to forbid a man "laying with another man as with a woman" (something a gay man does not do, of course, unless anal sex with a women was the norm in Biblical times).

Mormons for Child Abuse

Fundamentalist Mormons demonstrating in support of polygamy (and the right of their men to abuse women and children).

Utah decriminalises polygamy. Opponents are outraged | Barry Duke

According to this report by CNN, the state of Utah has reduced to penalty for polygamy from being a third degree felony punishable with up to 5 years in prison and a $5,000 fine to that of a misdemeanor on the same scale as a traffic offence.

Polygamy, allowing a man to have several wives, had once been a central tenet of Mormonism and the practice that led to their moving to Utah to found their own colonies, free from the persecution of the mostly Christian states which outlawed the practice. It was the issue that kept Utah out of the Union until, in the nick of time, God revealed to the leaders of the church that marriage was now the union of one man with one woman, for life, just as it was in the other states.

How Religion Damages Children.

It’s difficult for young children to differentiate between fact and fiction after they have been exposed to religion.

Study Shows Children Raised With Religion Find It Challenging To Judge Fact From Fiction.

A 2014 study published in Cognitive Science shows a marked difference in their ability to distinguish fact from fiction between children brought up in secular households and those brought up in a religious ones.

Children conditioned to accept the magical content of religious stories as factual, find it harder to understand that such stories are actually impossible, not true accounts of real events. For example, when asked to classify the story of Moses waving a magic wand and making a pathway open up through the sea, children subjected to a religious upbringing will be more likely to classify the story as factual rather than fictional, despite the express inclusion of a magical element in the story.