John Paul II Pedophile Priests in Orange County

The Dioceses of California are settling the clergy abuse at an alarming rate. In July Cardinal Mahony settled $660 MILLION, the largest amount in USA history. Bishop Brom decided to forfeit his bankruptcy filing and settled $200 MILLION. Then Orange County followed suit and paid $7 MILLION to finish its leftover from last year's $100 MILLION. Why such speed. It is because Opus Dei want to canonize John Paul II so they can say "St. John Paul II and St. Josemaria". See http://jp2m.blogspot.com/

http://www.ocweekly.com/news/ex-cathedra/the-sins-of-the-father/14820/
The "Sins" Of The Father
While Catholic Priests Raped Orange County Children, Pope John Paul II Looked the Other Way

By Gustavo Arellano
Thursday, May 19, 2005 - 12:00 am


Pope John Paul II knew.

Of the many shocking stories to emerge from the Orange diocese's recently released personnel files, one is likely to resonate worldwide: the pope knew that Catholic priests were accused of molesting Orange County children as early as 1987--and apparently did nothing to stop the scandal.

That disturbing revelation is included in the papers of Father Andrew Christian Andersen. His file is included in the thousands of pages of documents released May 17 as part of the record-breaking $100 million settlement reached between the Orange diocese and its victims. Andersen pleaded guilty in 1986 to 26 counts of molesting four boys while working at St. Bonaventure in Huntington Beach.

One item in Andersen's file is an August 10, 1987, note to Orange diocesan officials from Monsignor Oscar Rizzato, then Secretariat of State for the Vatican. The Secretariat of State, as the Vatican's website describes it, is the arm of the Holy See's bureaucracy that "works most closely with the Supreme Pontiff in the exercise of his universal mission."

Rizzato's letter is brief: just an acknowledgement that the Vatican had received and was forwarding to Orange two letters from a non-Catholic outraged at the Orange diocese's handling of the Andersen case. As previously reported in the Weekly (see "Good Cop, Bad Church," Feb. 20, 2004), church officials stymied Huntington Beach police detectives who wanted to interview Andersen about the molestation claims.

The man, whose name has been redacted, said he was writing John Paul II "out of desperation and heartache." His letter describes the domestic havoc unleashed after a deacon abused his brother during the 1970s. The man also expressed disappointment that many St. Bonaventure parishioners and church leaders continued to support Andersen--after he admitted to the molestation charges, even after officials sent him to the Paracletes facilities in Jemez Springs, New Mexico, a remote counseling center for the church's child-molesting priests.

"If the Catholic Church would punish Father Anderson [sic] instead of hiding him in some small church in New Mexico," the man wrote, "perhaps others will look on child abuse as a real threat. I know we are not suppose to be judgemental [sic] and we are to feel compassion, especially for the ill which Father Anderson [sic] is, but is this 'out of sight, out of mind' method of dealing with the crime derived from Godly compassion or mortal embarrassment?"

His Holiness did not answer.

On June 4, 1987, the man resent his original letter to John Paul II along with another plea. "Although I have never been a Catholic member I have always looked to the Pope as a symbol of the true and pure belief in God and Christ," the man confessed. "I guess I need reassurance that you believe in what you say and the Bible's teachings and believe that the children are a great blessing from God that need our protection and love, not only when it is popular but more so when it is not."

His Holiness did not answer. Instead, Rizzato forwarded the letters to Orange, noting, "no reply has been sent." On Rizzato's letter, an unnamed diocesan official scribbled, "Michael—I will answer if you'd like—but, due to the contents, you might want to."

"Michael" was Michael Driscoll, then head of priest personnel affairs for the Orange diocese, now Bishop of Boise, Idaho. There is nothing in Andersen's files showing that Driscoll or the Vatican ever responded to the man's concerns.

Ironically, it was Andersen himself who sought a kind of justice. A couple of years later, he wrote to John Paul II, asking that the Holy See release him from the priesthood in light of his pedophilia. The contents of that letter are not known because the Orange diocese has yet to turn it over.

Monsignor Rizzato's inaction is another example of John Paul II's passivity in the face of the sex-abuse scandal destroying Catholic America. In an extraordinary essay in the June issue of Vanity Fair , John Paul II biographer John Cornwall argues the Church will never truly deal with priestly pedophilia until the hierarchy radically alters the approach instituted by the man born Karol Wojtyla. According to Cornwall, John Paul II was could not bring himself to blame individual priests and their conniving superiors for committing and aiding the rapes of innocents. Instead, Cornwall writes, the pope located the source of the crimes elsewhere, in the mysterium iniquitatis, the "mystery of evil."

"The comment distances the perpetrators, and indeed the Church, from responsibility," Cornwall wrote, "for it implies that the priests in question did not set out to abuse young people but were enticed to do so by Satan."

That's the philosophical view endorsed to this day by Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown. During a May 17 press conference at Los Angeles' Central Civil West Courthouse following the release of the priest personnel files, Brown constantly referred to the inaction of his diocese as a "sin." No one in the media challenged him. The correction was left to a sex-abuse survivor. From the back of the conference room, he asked Brown why the bishop called the crimes "sins" rather than "crimes."

It was as if Brown hadn't heard the man. He again expressly apologized for the "sins" of his church, and then he moved on.


To download the .pdf file containing the Rizzato memo and the letters to Pope John Paul II, click here. http://www.ocweekly.com/images/ink/05/37/gustavo01.pdf

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John Paul II Pedophile Priests in OC Orange County

Peter Callahan: Grade A A-Hole

Posted by Gustavo Arellano in Ex Cathedra, Main
October 9, 2007 12:21 PM


For the past three years, employees for the Catholic Diocese of Orange have made our list of Orange County's Scariest People. In 2004, it was Bishop Tod D. Brown; 2005 included former diocesan spokesman Joseph Fenton, while last year's edition featured statutory rapist Jeff Andrade. Our Scariest People issue doesn't publish until later this month, but we can reveal the latest diocesan person to make the list: lawyer Peter Callahan.

Rather than list all the man's sins today, we'll just state one and leave the rest for our Scariest Issue. Today, after a judge ruled against the diocese today, Callahan and others staged a press conference. At the press conference was Sarah Gray, whom won a settlement from the diocese for her abuse at the hands of a former Mater Dei choir director. After Callahan asserted that Mater Dei officials properly handled all sex-abuse allegations for which the diocese was being sued (a claim we went over yesterday), Gray spoke up.
She told Callahan and a bevy of reporters that no such thing occurred when her parents asked Mater Dei officials to report her abuser (former choir director Larry Stukenholtz) to the proper authorities after they let him go in the late 1990s. Callahan didn't miss a beat.

"You had your press conference yesterday," he shot back, adding that Gray's case was irrelevant to the matter at hand in the press conference. Gray shook her head in disbelief. Orange County Register columnist (and good Catholic) Frank Mickadeit tried to pursue Gray's question further, but Callahan wouldn't hear it.

Petey: you need to stop with the uppitiness and show some compassion. Even Bishop Tod D. Brown was taken aback by your sheer asshole-ery. Then again, with all the losses you've suffered while representing the Orange diocese, you have every right to bitch. Regardless, hope you like our Scariest People entry on you later this month!


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Peepee Match Between John Manly, Jubal On!

Posted by Gustavo Arellano in Ex Cathedra, Main, Naranja News
October 9, 2007 11:50 AM
http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/ex-cathedra/peepee-match-between-john-manl/

Today, Judge Gail Andler refused to dismiss a contempt-of-court motion filed against Diocese of Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown by his longtime nemesis, John Manly for the recently settled Jeff Andrade case. Read more about the hearing in this Thursday's issue of the paper--for this post, I'll discuss a quien-es-más-macho incident that happened before Judge Andler's court went into session.

Manly associate Vince Finaldi set his suitcase in Judge Andler's courtroom a bit before 9 a.m. He went outside to take a call. Just as he left the courtroom, in came Matt (a.k.a Jubal) Cunningham, the man behind OC Blog and a fierce Manly critic. Cunningham sat next to where Finaldi was sitting. Neither knew who the other was--or so it seemed.

When Manly came into the courtroom, Finaldi pointed out Cunningham. Manly told Cunningham, "Hey Matt, want to go see the files?" Manly was referring to the thousands of pages of priestly personnel files that show diocesan complicity in the rapes of innocents.

"Not today," Cunningham replied.

"That's what I thought," Manly chortled back.

"I do have a job," Cunningham shot back.

"We all know what that is," Manly said knowingly.

"And what is that?" Cunningham asked.

Back and forth this pissing match went, until Manly basically dared Cunningham to go to his office tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. and see all the documents; Cunningham said yes. Manly then looked at me.

"Are you going to be there to make sure he arrives?" he asked. Reading about the Dallas Cowboys' thrilling comeback, I demurred, stating it was a matter between them. And that's when the conversation turned weirder, with Cunningham asking if Manly would make their meeting "another media event" and Manly telling Cunningham, "How about we make a Mass out of it? How about we offer Communion?"

Now, boys. We like the both of you, although we think Cunningham doth defend pedophile protectors too much. But sling your schlongs back into your loincloths, and make that appointment (now scheduled for Friday, per Manly). Afterwards, let your respective spin start anew.

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'Tittie Twister'™!How the Los Angeles archdiocese stretched, twisted and contorted to hide bad, bad priests in Orange County — and how we learned to love it

By GUSTAVO ARELLANO
Thursday, October 27, 2005 - 12:00 am

http://www.ocweekly.com/news/ex-cathedra/tittie-twister/18482/

The Oct. 11 release by the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles of records on 176 suspected child-raping priests adds new evidence that church officials played hide-the-pedophile for decades.

Instead of disclosing psychological reports and other crucial personnel information, Cardinal Roger Mahony released only one-page summaries on each priest. Even heavily redacted, the documents provide further graphic proof that Orange County Catholic Church officials accepted, tolerated and sometimes conspired to hide known pedophiles before OC split off to form its own diocese in 1976. Here are six of the worst LA/OC cases:


MICHAEL BUCKLEY In 1959, a father of two boys complained to the Los Angeles archdiocese that Buckley -- then working at Sacred Heart Church in Los Angeles -- flashed his sons. Six years later, a parishioner sent an anonymous letter to church officials requesting that they defrock Buckley because of his "moral fitness." Then-Cardinal James McIntyre instead made Buckley a hospital chaplain in Torrance and Lynwood until 1971, when Buckley took up residence at Immaculate Heart of Mary in Santa Ana. There, Buckley is accused of molesting at least eight boys.

LYNN CAFFOE His report shows parents at St. Callistus in Garden Grove complained in 1975 that Caffoe committed "a boundary violation" with altar boys. Officials transferred Caffoe to Los Angeles, where fellow priests found an undated videotape of Caffoe engaging in "improper behavior with several high school boys." A complaint was also lodged with the Huntington Beach Police Department in 1994. Detectives never followed up. Caffoe's whereabouts are unknown.

PETER GARCIA He spent eight months at St. Polycarp's Church in Stanton between 1975 and 1976, just after church records show he wrote a letter "regarding his friendship" with a woman's son while ministering in Monterey Park. Garcia is accused of molesting 12 boys in Los Angeles County parishes after leaving St. Polycarp's.

BERTRAND HORVATH Church records show Horvath was notorious at St. Kilian in Mission Viejo during the early 1970s, where he made altar boys "remove their shirts" and gave them what the document describes as "tittie twisters." Horvath is reported to have fondled himself while asking boys whether they masturbated. Horvath left St. Kilian for a Los Angeles-area parish and bounced across the country until 2000, when Orange diocesan officials finally alerted their peers at the Amarillo Diocese about Horvath's past. After that, Horvath was placed in counseling.

JOHN KOHNKE In 1974, Santa Ana police arrested Kohnke for "engaging in oral copulation of a minor." The one-line summary provides no further details, and church records from the time do not disclose the parish in which Kohnke served.

JOSEPH SHARPE The much-beloved monsignor at St. John Vianney Chapel on Balboa Island, where he served from 1978 until 1998. It’s probable few parishioners knew of Sharpe's past: two sisters informed the Los Angeles archdiocese in 1971 that Sharpe engaged in an "improper relationship" with them. By the time he arrived in Newport, the Los Angeles Archdiocese personnel board had forced Sharpe to resign in 1973 for "various personal problems" and undisclosed "job performance issues." This didn't stop the Diocese of Orange from accepting Sharpe upon its formation in 1976.

KILL THE POOR!

After 83 years, the bells of Fullerton's St. Mary School stopped ringing in May, victims of what the Diocese of Orange described as declining enrollment and the economy. And while we can't remember whether it's a venial or a mortal sin when you lie where the lives of the poor or sex crimes are concerned, this much we know: the county's Catholic officials can't keep straight their story about St. Mary.

Last year, the Diocese of Orange paid $100 million to settle claims with 90 victims of child-molesting church employees. In a letter last month to the county's 1.2 million Catholics, Bishop Tod D. Brown announced that all but $15 million of the debt had been paid off. His Eminence promised the faithful that the monumental payout -- at the time, the largest since the time of Jesus -- "does not put our financial stability at risk and not one dollar has been taken from parish or school funds or any other restricted donation. Further, I do not envision any further reduction in diocesan staff or services beyond what has already been experienced."

But God works in mysterious ways to reveal the ways of the wicked. Sometimes his tool is the Los Angeles Times. On Sept. 20, Father Art Holquin, pastor at the Old Mission in San Juan Capistrano, told the Times that the record settlement hurt.

"It would be unfortunate if people perceived that [the settlement] caused no pain. It did cause pain," Holquin told Times reporter Roy Rivenburg. Hardest hit, Holquin said, were "struggling Catholic schools in Santa Ana and other low-income areas [that] could have benefited from the $50 million that was diverted to the sex-abuse settlement."

Rivenburg did not press Holquin for details. But a little research reveals that this year alone church leaders closed the schools at Our Lady of the Pillar in Santa Ana and St. Mary, two parishes that serve largely Latino congregations. Diocesan officials at the time claimed the settlement had nothing to do with the closures, that declining enrollment and a tough economy forced their hand.

"Enrollment in Santa Ana has been dropping because of the increasing cost of tuition," diocesan spokesman Joe Fenton told The Orange County Register on Jan. 19, about the time the church was finalizing its deal with sex-crimes victims. "Consolidating the schools will allow us to eliminate administrative positions, hold the line on tuition and provide more scholarships to needy students."

Fenton, who clearly needs some work in remedial logic and math, did not examine the possibility that the church could have spent on scholarships the millions it spent for sex crimes.

No one at the Orange diocese returned our calls. But earlier this year, a Brown confidant provided the Weekly with a list of parochial schools he -- or maybe it was she -- claimed the diocese would close in order to pay off the sex-crimes victims. St. Mary and Our Lady of the Pillar were on that list. "[Brown] and his spinmeisters will give some kind of public explanation that sounds plausible," said the source, who requested anonymity. "But the bottom line is that schools that serve the Latino community are expendable."