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By Kay Ebeling
It’s easy to see why the Salesians want to distance themselves from the Catholic Church in the Nov. 5 jury trial in LA. When the whole story comes out about how pedophile priests affected American society it’s going to be embarrassing for anyone to associate with the Catholic Church. We haven’t even started to gauge the collateral damage done to this country by the pedophile priest epidemic, what advocate Dennis McKeown in Pittsburgh calls the “vicious cycle.” Or what Joseph Druce, who murdered John Geoghan last year, describes as "tortuous memories of shame embedded in the soul." Druce's poem is at the end of this post.
The Salesians don’t want to “inflame” jurors by mentioning the LA Archdiocese, the Pope, any settlements paid to victims of Catholic priest sex crimes so far, the name Cardinal Roger Mahony, all of which is understandable considering the LA archdiocese and the Catholic Church’s reputation. Salesian attorneys write: “Evidence concerning ADLA and/or Mahony serves no purpose other than to unfairly prejudice defendants by inflaming the jury and creating bias in favor of plaintiffs.”
Problem is the Salesians are just as guilty as the Catholic Church and Mahony and they all are a long way from justice. Consider this: a budding pedophile sees a Catholic priest being a pedophile so he becomes a priest. After decades of watching priests get away with pedophilia, predators become more bold. Look at the increase in violence against children in the United States in the last 50 years, with police finding mutilated bodies of young boys and girls. While priests got more bold with their altar boys, pedophiles graduated from sex crimes against children to violence.
Like the altar boy who became addicted to pornography that destroyed his family life, like the young girl whose compulsions caused damage to other people’s marriages,
like Joseph Druce who murdered John Geogan in prison last year.
Consider this conversation I had with former priest who was molested but thinks he’s gotten over it last week:
HIM: So maybe you made some bad choices.
ME: MMPH.
HIM; A lot of people get into drugs and promiscuous sex and blah-blah-blah but was it really because something happened to you at age five --
ME: YEAH IT WAS. A SEXUAL COMPULSION WAS PLACED IN ME AT AN EARLY AGE AND IT IMPACTED EVERYTHING I DID.
And why is that bad?
WHY IS THAT BAD? [LAUGHS]
Lots of people would make it a joyous event.
ME: MAYBE IT WAS “JOYOUS” FOR THE FIRST 15 YEARS OR SO BUT I WOULD SAY THE WEIRD DISEASES I ENDED UP WITH, THE MARRIAGES I BROKE UP, THE RELATIONSHIPS I DEMOLISHED, THE PEOPLE I HURT, THE CAREERS I DESTROYED, THOSE ARE THE THINGS THAT DON’T GO AWAY. THOSE ARE THE THINGS THAT POP UP. MY CHILDREN WHO WON’T SEE ME, THE CHLAMYDIA AND ALL THOSE PEOPLE I GAVE IT TO -- THESE ARE NOT JUST BAD CHOICES.
