Sunday, May 24, 2009

Benedict XVI and Sam Harris' Letter to a Christian Nation

Benedict XVI and the Opus Dei eunuchs at the Vatican are - what Sam Harris call - the most educated Catholics who spend the most hilarious, terrifying, and unconscionable waste of time concocting dogmas and doctrines to continue deceiving and controlling the 1.2 Billion Catholics ...and they silence the Jesuits who are working with the poorest of Christ like the Jesuit Jon Sobrino in El Salvador -- see the www.pope-ratz.blogspot.com for indepth exposure on Benedict XVI and the Opus Dei's HATRED and fear of the Jesuits' voice!

Benedict XVI and the Opus Dei at the Vatican are really the whole enterprise that exude a truly diabolical aura of misspent human energy"...

Sam Harris' book Letter to a Christian Nation is a must-read book for truth-seekers and peace-abiding people.

http://www.samharris.org/


Letter to A Christian Nation


Sam Harris

How can any educated person think this anything but a hilarious, terrifying, and unconscionable waste of time? When one considers the fact that this is the very institution that has produced and sheltered an elite army of child molesters, the whole enterprise begins to exude a truly diabolical aura of misspent human energy. Page 66

Debate between Sam Harris and a Jewish Rabbi best seller

American Jewish University presents best-selling authors Sam Harris and Rabbi David Wolpe in a debate about the existence of God and the role of religion and faith in society. Sam Harris is a renowned atheist and author of The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation. Rabbi David Wolpe, of Sinai

http://www.jewishtvnetwork.com/?bcpid=533363107&bctid=1329234778


Imagine Benedict XVi and Sam Harris, Benedict would be so GAY and gayish and would run out of words to say!

Sunday, May 10, 2009

John Paul II Pedophile Priest reassigned in Davenport Catholic diocese‏

For immediate release: Monday, April 27, 2009

Predator priest is re-assigned; SNAP blasts bishop
Statement by Steve Theisen, SNAP Iowa Outreach Director 319 231 1663

This is a reckless and callous and selfish act that will needlessly put kids in harm's way.

We challenge Shafer and Davenport Catholic officials to explain why, if Shafer is 'innocent,' they paid to settle a lawsuit against him and why he wrote that troubling email essentially admitting that he abused.

Now more than ever, it's crucial that anyone who saw, suspected or suffered Shafer's crimes comes forward, calls police, and gets healing.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the nation’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We've been around since 1988 and have more than 9,000 members across the country. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contact: David Clohessy, SNAP National Director 314-566-9790, Barbara Blaine, SNAP President 312-399-4747

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/ia-davenport/media/2004-03-20-Jordan-VicarConfessed.htm

Vicar Confessed in E-Mail to Alleged Victim

The Davenport Diocese Wants to Dismiss a Lawsuit Filed Last Year

By Erin Jordan, Des Moines Register, March 20, 2004

Fort Madison, Ia. - The Davenport Catholic diocese's second-ranking official, whose job before he was suspended last summer included investigating abuse complaints against other priests, admitted in an e-mail to his own misdeeds with a teenage boy 30 years ago.

Part of the e-mail from Monsignor Drake Shafer to the alleged abuse victim was read in court Friday, during a hearing on the diocese's effort to dismiss a lawsuit.
Shafer, the Davenport Diocese's vicar general, was placed on leave in July until allegations against him are resolved. In his job as vicar general, one of the diocese's top administrative jobs, Shafer was responsible for investigating allegations against other priests.

Shafer wrote in an April 5, 2002, e-mail to the alleged sexual abuse victim that the incident in the 1970s "was the only time in my priesthood when anything remotely like it happened."

Shafer acknowledged getting drunk on the night in question and said he had been abused by a priest himself when he was a child.

"I did not intend to abuse you that night or any other," he wrote. "I hope you know that our friendship at that time meant a lot to me and I would never have wanted to hurt you in any way and I am so sorry that I did."

A West Burlington man identified as John Doe claims in his lawsuit filed June 27, 2003, that Shafer abused him in 1973 or 1974. The lawsuit was filed against Shafer, the Davenport Diocese and St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Fort Madison where Shafer was a priest. Doe was 14 or 15 at the time.

Shafer denied the allegation when the lawsuit was filed last year. His e-mail, introduced during Friday's hearing at the Lee County Courthouse, was written more than a year earlier.

David Montgomery, spokesman for the Davenport Diocese, referred inquiries to diocese attorney Rand Wonio, who did not return phone calls. In a February diocese report on the extent of child abuse by priests, Bishop William E. Franklin said the diocese sexual abuse review board was investigating allegations against Shafer.

Until last month, Davenport had been labeled one of the most uncooperative dioceses in the nation in making public information about misdeeds by priests amid nationwide disclosures of decades of abuse and coverups. In February, the eastern Iowa diocese issued a candid report that named priests and detailed previous bishops' errors in returning suspected abusers to the ministry.

Attorneys for the church and Shafer on Friday asked Judge John G. Linn to dismiss the case because it was filed too late to meet the two-year statute of limitations.

Des Moines attorney Roxanne Conlin, who is representing Doe, said the statute should be waived because post-traumatic stress disorder caused her client to suppress the memory until 2002.

Conlin argued that the case should not be dismissed before a jury can decide Shafer's guilt.

"I did many things wrong that night 27 years ago," Shafer wrote in the e-mail. "I should never have allowed you and I to be in that situation. I should never have had anything to drink that night and I drank to excess and doing so put you in danger.

"I should have talked to you about this long ago," Shafer wrote. "Deep shame and denial that I may have acted contrary to who I believe I really am prevented me and caused, I now know, further hurt to you."

Shafer told Doe that he, too, had been abused by a priest when he was a boy. "It went on from 9 to 12-years-old," Shafer wrote. "I never told anyone then that it happened and that priest is dead now for many years."

Shafer said in the e-mail that he knew admitting to the incident would likely end his life as a priest. "I share all of this not because I am trying to keep you from doing whatever you believe you must do, but because I want you to know how deeply sorry I am for it."

The lawsuit against Shafer is one of 14 filed against the Davenport diocese alleging abuse. In February, the diocese said it would remove five priests from the ministry after an investigation of 50 years of records revealed evidence of sexual abuse of children or possession of child pornography by the men. Shafer was not among the five priests named.

Although Shafer was not named in Doe's lawsuit, Shafer released his name shortly after the lawsuit was filed and has been on paid leave since.

Shafer wrote the e-mail to Doe in response to an e-mail from Doe on April 1, 2002, Conlin said.

"It's not been an easy task when not a day goes by that I don't think about that night in a hotel room when a very young man was taken advantage of," Doe wrote to Shafer. "Will these thoughts of abuse ever go away?"

Attorneys for the diocese and Shafer said Doe's e-mail discredits his claim that he had suppressed the memory of alleged abuse and recalled it only in 2002.

"The plaintiff admits he has known about the incident for 27 years," said Robert McMonagle, attorney for the diocese.

Iowa law allows people with a diagnosed mental illness an extension in filing lawsuits beyond the ordinary statute of limitations.

However, defense attorneys said therapists who diagnosed Doe did not state in affidavits that Doe had been mentally ill since the time of the alleged abuse.

"Mental illness must be so severe that it disables one from filing a lawsuit," said Peter Fieweger, Shafer's attorney. "Since 1972-1973, Mr. Doe has been married twice, had three children, been in the armed forces and carried on gainful employment. That is not the history of someone so mentally ill he is disabled from filing a lawsuit."
Linn said he would rule on the motion in four to six weeks.

[Register Religion Editor Shirley Ragsdale contributed to this article.]

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
www.snapnetwork.org

Saturday, May 09, 2009

John Paul II Pedophile Priest from Poland: 'A Crime of Silence'

Published May 06 2009

'A crime of silence'

In 1976, when he was 18, Richard Jangula ran into his hometown priest on a flight from Denver to Bismarck.

The Rev. Gregory Patejko offered to drive Jangula home to his parents’ new home in Linton, N.D. The Jangula family had farmed near Zeeland, N.D., where Patejko had been their parish priest. In the car, while he was driving, Patejko sexually molested him, Jangula says. Bob Schwiderski, Minnesota director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, held a news conference today outside Fargo diocese headquarters, saying Jangula's case is all too typical.
By: Stephen J. Lee, Grand Forks Herald

FARGO — In 1976, when he was 18, Richard Jangula ran into his hometown priest on a flight from Denver to Bismarck. The Rev. Gregory Patejko offered to drive Jangula home to his parents’ new home in Linton, N.D. The Jangula family had farmed near Zeeland, N.D., where Patejko had been their parish priest.

In the car, while he was driving, Patejko sexually molested him, Jangula says.

Still a small man at 51, Jangula said he was flummoxed by the attack by the man he was raised to think was next to God.

“What do you do? He was a big guy. What was I supposed to do? Hit the son of a ----? I remember I was in total shock.”

It happened two more times in following days. Jangula never told his parents, lifelong Catholics whose lives revolved around the church and family.

“To tell them what happened to me would have totally devastated them,” Jangula, 51, said this week from his Bismarck home. “My Mom and Dad are probably rolling in their graves hearing about this. But if I had told Dad, God only knows what would have happened.”

Patejko later moved to his native Poland, where he reportedly died.

Bob Schwiderski, Minnesota director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, held a news conference Wednesday outside Fargo diocese headquarters, saying Jangula's case is all too typical.

He, too, was abused by a Catholic priest from the time he was 7 until he was 11 in Hector, Minn., Schwiderski said. He finally told people years later and went to the New Ulm diocese to get answers. When he didn't get any, he sued them, got some money and got answers. “I cashed a check for $7,000,” Schwiderski said. “It's not about the money.” He found out 26 other altar boys in that small town, like him, had been abused by the same priest.

Jangula did not attend the news conference, partly because he's not yet comfortable speaking in public about it, he said.

With Schwiderski was Sharon Schanilec, Hawley, Minn., a new member of SNAP. Her son, Geoffrey Hilber, was sexually abused by a priest in the Green Bay, Wis., diocese when he was 14. She never knew until two years ago, and she and Geoffrey went to a SNAP conference, and he spoke about it to others for the first time. But years of alcohol and drug abuse — “the priest used to give them drugs,” she said — had made his life a wreck, and losing his wife and children was the last straw. Last August, at age 39, her son took his life, Schanilec said.

Seeking answers

In 1985, after years of problems, including drinking and depression, Jangula told a priest from back home about the abuse. He was advised to get counseling. In 1994, then Vicar General, Monsignor Wendelyn Vetter, came to his home and got him to sign a document releasing the Fargo diocese from any claims he might have “for any losses, injuries, damages or expenses,” that he suffered through “any sexual, physical or emotional abuse” by Patejko, St. Andrew parish in Zeeland, and the Fargo diocese.

Jangula said he got a modest sum from the diocese, reimbursing him for some counseling.

But he and his wife had four young children at the time and he was barely getting by, still plagued by emotional and mental trauma from the abuse, Jangula said.

“You are crawling the walls, and you have medical bills coming out your ears, and a priest tells you to sign these papers and go find a counselor,” Jangula said, describing how he felt church officials unfairly coerced him into signing the legal release. “I'm a one-eyed carpenter. What the hell do I know about finding a counselor?”

Two weeks ago, Jangula contacted SNAP seeking help and a way to help others.

Despite the 33 years that have passed, Jangula said the abuse still haunts him. “I know it's tough for everybody. But I sure would have liked to know what my life would have been like if I hadn't had to deal with this ---- . . .”

Jangula, Schwiderski and Schanilec all say they still have their faith, still attend Catholic Church, at least occasionally. All three sent their children to Catholic schools.

Jangula said he never could “thank God enough” for how Catholic schools in Bismarck helped raise his children, and he has priests for friends for whom “I would crawl on my knees around the world.”

But he has bitter memories of how Fargo diocesan officials seemed more worried about getting out of any legal obligation to him, more than worrying about the damage he suffered.

“They told me they had done everything legally and morally they were required to do. I beg to differ.”

The money he received in 1994, which he can't disclose, was “enough to pay for some of my medical bills,” Jangula said.

But he's needed more help since then, and hasn't gotten it, he said. A year or two ago, he met with Vicar General, Monsignor Dennis Skongseng and the diocese's coordinator of victim assistance, Briston Fernandes.

“Briston, he just smiled at me and said, ‘You shouldn't have signed that paper,’ ” Jangula said.

Tanya Watterud from the diocese said Skongseng and Fernandes would not be made available to comment, nor was Bishop Samuel Aquila.

Watterud read a statement saying the diocese “has taken extraordinary efforts to make the diocese a safe environment for all people. For those who have reported previously having been abused by priests, we have met with them and exerted our best efforts to meet their needs. We have met with Mr. Jangula many times, both recently and years ago, and have, in fact, assisted him in a variety of ways. We regret that he remains unsatisfied with our efforts.”

Schanilec attends church in Fargo and has heard Bishop Aquila has improved the diocese's response to abuse victims. Aquila has removed several priests and made victim's assistances more prominent, similar to most bishops the past 10 years as the issue has surfaced in greater numbers.

Schwiderski said this is the first time Patejko's name has surfaced publicly as a sexual abuser, illustrating a pattern of covering up abusers within the Catholic Church.

“Sexual abuse is a crime of silence,” Schwiderski said. Gesturing toward Bishop Aquila's chancery, he said, “Don't sit in there and say ‘Come to me.’ If they don't want to be Good Samaritans, we will go along the road and help those laying there, bleeding.”

SNAP is a non-profit that receives donations from many people, Schwiderski said. It was started 20 years go by people who were victimized by Catholic priests, but deals with victims of many religious institutions.

Jangula says he knows of at least two other victims of Patejko, who moved back to Poland years ago and died there, reportedly.

Patejko was a priest in Poland and the Netherlands, before coming to the United States, where he served in New Jersey, and in the Fargo diocese, in Zeeland, Ashley, Hope, Page and Aneta, from 1972-1981, Schwiderski said.

Born in 1930 in Poland, ordained in 1953, Patejko served a parish in Texas near Austin from 1985 until he returned to Poland in the early 1990s.

Jangula said officials of the Fargo diocese told him Patejko admitted sexually abusing Jangula when the priest was asked about it.

It seems clear the diocese knew about the abuse and didn't do enough to protect other young men, Jangula said.

“To be honest, I forgave the guy a long time ago,” Jangula said. “But I have a hard time forgetting it. If they knew all this stuff, why in hell didn't they get any help? I would like to know how many more people were treated like I was treated and how many people haven't come forward.”

http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/117752/

Contact SNAP at www.snapnetwork.org

The Catholic Diocese of Fargo asks people to report any sexual abuse to Briston Fernandes at (701) 356-7965 or online at www.fargodiocese.com.



Contact Lee at (701) 780-1237 or (7801) 740-9891; e-mail slee@gfherald.com.

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