Mahony, George, all cardinals guilty in pedophile priest epidemic. Sign a petition. Help a victim

It's disheartening when the media quote any of the cardinals who are in Rome this week to select a new Pope.  The news is peppered with articles:  How the disgraced Roger Mahony of L.A. is still able to vote, how the elevated Francis George of Chicago shows concern for his crime victims. Why do any Catholic Church leaders deserve any news coverage other than reports about each cardinal's complicity in the cover-up of a hundred thousand children being molested by their priests in the last 70 years in the USA alone? 

Last week mainstream news copied down the words of Cardinal George of Chicago as he found microphones in the Vatican and pontificated about zero tolerance.  George was quoted throughout the world saying, "Because there are victims, cardinals must address the issue of sexual misconduct in the pre-conclave meetings" (for example in Chicago Tribune March 7).   

Well I know from experience how Cardinal George treats victims of pedophile priests in his archdiocese as I reported here: 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 2012 

Chi Archdiocese tries to silence CofA Blog, read story hereat CofA Blog.

“There’s a problem, it's your blog,” said the the "mediator" beside me, as the Chicago Archdiocese tried to silence City of Angels Blog on April 8, 2011. Church attorneys had lured me to the windy city by  . . . "

When reporters just write down what the cardinals claim, without bothering to find anyone who’s had a direct experience of their policies, it's more damage done to the pedophile priest victims

However, just like we see in the U.S. today in stories about the economy and how the poor and not the last two wars are responsible for budget deficits, mainstream reporters just write down what spokesmen say and publish it, performing as corporate stenographers, instead of journalists.

Meanwhile the only victims advocacy group visible, SNAP, is in Rome this week releasing statements about which cardinal would be a better pick for next Pope.

As if it makes a difference.

Roger Mahony is not the only guilty cardinal

As awful as Mahony of Los Angeles may be* he’s not the only scarlet cardinal.  His current role as demon serves more as a diversionary tactic orchestrated by the church than a news story.  

Only reason Mahony appears to be so bad is his files were released.  In reality, he’s likely not any worse than every other Catholic cardinal or bishop across the globe.   The pedophile priest crimes were an epidemic throughout the church, the same pattern of hiding the crimes and transferring the perpetrators was repeated in every archdiocese.   

If prosecutors could go through Pedophile Priest Personnel Files in every archdiocese as they are doing in Los Angeles, they would likely find that every bishop in the Catholic Church is guilty of the same crimes committed by Roger Mahony.  

So Mahony gets to put himself in martyr mode and all across the land, news reporters fall for it and report exactly the story the church wants reported: 

Focus on Mahony, don't write about every other archdiocese in the world doing the same thing. 

  

There are more than a hundred thousand victims of pedophile priests living with our damages in the USA right now.  Roger Mahony is no more guilty than every bishop in the United States, he’s just been forced to release internal documents.  

Mahony Might Even Be One of the Better Ones

Considering the size of settlements Mahony approved to be paid, $660 million to 510 plaintiffs in 2007, plus more in 2006 and since 2007, he might be one of the more decent bishops, in the end, if you can call any of them decent. At least Mahony seemed to realize the scope of the damage done to a kid being raped by a priest, and he approved an average of a million dollars to any victim who found their way to a lawyer during the one-year window that was opened in California in 2003 to file lawsuits.  One million  average, per victim, when bishops in other cities have only paid out in the low five figures.   

PETITION 

To Change Illinois SOL

for sex abuse victims.

You can sign a petition to try to get Illinois law changed so Cardinal George could be forced to help the victims he claims to care about and maybe even release documents from the Chicago Archdiocese the way they were released in Los Angeles by clicking here:

ILLINOIS JUSTICE FOR CHILD VICTIMS petition reached 107 signers last week. But if we are going to have an impact, it's critical that more people contact The Illinois State House.  With your help, we can reach our goal! Share this link   Thank you 

Cardinal George of Chicago had the audacity to offer me Five Thousand Dollars as a settlement for molestation by pedophile priest Thomas Barry Horne in Bartlett Illinois, sex crimes committed on me at preschool age that ruined my sexuality for the rest of my life, and as a result ruined my ability to hold a job or maintain a relationship for life.  Five thousand dollars was what I was offered from the Chicago Archdiocese and a threat that I better stop blogging about my experiences or someone in the church might sue me. 

So in that respect, poor dejected persecuted Roger Mahony might be one of the best of the cardinals. I think it's almost diversionary to single the former L.A. archbishop out as a bad guy when the pedophile priest crimes were epidemic all throughout the Church, Mahony is just the only one who's paid out huge settlements and released files, albeit after a long fight. He at least gave lip service to the amount of damage being raped by a priest as a child does to a person.   

Doubt we'll even get that far in other archdioceses, for example, Chicago.

God only knows how many more children were raped worldwide and over the centuries by perverts using their position as priest to get to children and cardinals who let them do it.

ALSO

I NEED HELP

I'm trying to get back to California and need to raise two thousand dollars to drive a Uhaul home. 

I left L.A. in November 2010 thinking I’d be able to report on pedophile priest stories across the country, what I ambitiously called Murmur She Wrote.  But soon after arriving in Albuquerque, poverty became the dominant factor in my life and I realized it's impossible to do investigative journalism without a car. 

Now I find myself stranded in Illinois.  My job that I do over the internet seems to be disappearing in the morass of the American economy and I'm scared I'll never be able to even get back home.

If a few hundred persons put five dollars or more on my PayPal account it would help me at least get home so I can be near my daughter.  While Cardinal George and all the rest of them are luxuriating in the weeks long process of selecting a new Pope in Rome, I'm sick with lupus and have no health care as I'm not in my home state, I'm stranded with no car in a strange city, and I just want to go home.  PS I don't think of myself as a survivor at all.  I'm still a victim, broke and broken. 

Please use your credit or debit card and send a High $5 or higher by clicking the PayPal Donate button in the left hand column on this blog.  

Or email me at cityofangelslady@yahoo.com 

And help me get home.  

***********
UPDATE:  3:45 PM. 
I have found evidence while here in Illinois that my story about Fr. Horne in Bartlett and about being told to stop babbling by Cardinal Stritch really did happen.  

MORE TO COME IN A BLOG POST SOON

******************************

One political cartoonist captured the real story of selection of the next pope. 

Cartoon by Mike Luckovich  of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, February 2, 2013.  Published here so that when I post this post at Facebook there will be art connected to it.  

LINKS IN THIS POST:

Link to article on my experience with Cardinal George's Attorneys in April 2011 here: 

http://cityofangels12.blogspot.com/2012/04/chi-archdiocese-tries-to-silence-cofa.html 

Link to Illinois Petition: 

http://signon.org/sign/justice-for-child-victims?mailing_id=9963&source=s.icn.em.cr&r_by=7223367 

Link to my PayPal account: 

Linking to PayPal in the blog post does not work.

So please use one of the "Donate" buttons in the left hand column of this blog, to send me a high $5 or higher and help me get back to California. 

Link to Atlanta Journal Constitution cartoonist Mike Luckovich: 

http://blogs.ajc.com/mike-luckovich/

* POOR PITIFUL MAHONY:

1. Press TV

   Controversy over Cardinal Mahony's conclave votereaches Vatican  Religion News Service-Feb 19, 2013 The controversy over Cardinal Roger Mahony's vote in the conclave that ... “Cardinal Mahony should not only stay home from the conclave but ... + Show more

2. ABC News (blog)

   Cardinal Mahony 'Should Skip Pope Vote'  Sky News-Feb 20, 2013 California Cardinal Roger Mahony has come under pressure to skip the ... whether Cardinal Mahony should attend the conclave next month to elect a ... saying he had not been equipped to deal with the problem of sexual ... + Show more

3. San Francisco Chronicle

   Cardinal: LA's Mahony should help select pope  KTVU San Francisco-Feb 25, 2013 "There are some victims groups for whom enough is never enough, so we ... an investigation into Vatican leaks to cardinals voting on his successor. ... Levada and Mahony will join more than 100 cardinals on Thursday in ... + Show more

4. Paul Begala: A Prayer for the Catholic Church  Daily Beast-11 hours ago And not a single cardinal has called for excluding Mahony. ...Mahony actually had the temerity to defend what he did and what he failed to do. + Show more

5. Sistine chimney installed ahead of conclave  abc11.com-2 hours ago US Cardinals Sean Patrick O'Malley, center, Roger Mahony, right, and ... Saturday installed the top of the Sistine Chapel chimney thatwill signal to the world ... "We're not going to send out text messages or SMS messages, you'll ... While the cardinals ponder their choices, preparations for the vote continue. + Show more

6. A colourful cast of 115 cardinals are gathering to select a new pope ...  The Guardian-17 hours ago When it comes to the conclave of 115 cardinals who will choose the next pope in ... Cardinal Roger Mahony, archbishop emeritus of Los Angeles, and Cardinal ... a quarter of the total number of pope-makers, do not want for colourful ... supreme court voted in 2012 to legalise the termination of foetuses with ...

7. ABC News (blog)

   Cardinal Roger Mahony's reign of terror--and why heshould not ...  RenewAmerica-Feb 23, 2013 Cardinal Roger Mahony's reign of terror--and why he should notboard ... is none other than the deciding vote of a corrupt human being and a ... + Show more

Posted by Kay Ebeling, 

The City of Angels is Everywhere

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