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Controversy surrounds U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference
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Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, president-elect of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, speaks during a news conference after his election Tuesday, Nov.13, 2007 in Baltimore. (AP )
BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Despite protests from sexual abuse victims, Chicago Cardinal Francis George was elected president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops during the group’s annual fall meeting. Barbara Blaine, president of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests who was sexually abused at age 13, claims George allowed the Rev. Daniel McCormack, a Chicago pastor, to serve in a ministry position, despite the fact George knew McCormack had molested children.
George comes to the office after serving as conference vice president for three years. As president, George will serve as the spokesman for the bishops and represent the U.S. church in Vatican meetings.
Blaine said George’s remarks in a private letter obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times are hurtful.
“[The] Times reveals that earlier this year George wrote to the parents of a victim that it is ‘irresponsible’ to suspend the statute of limitations so victims could expose their predators in court and that such efforts are ‘not about safety of children but about money.’
In response to the letter, George said it was taken out of context from a private letter meant to comfort.
George has “the very best record of any of the cardinals for hiding pedophile priests in unsuspecting dioceses, sending them to countries where they can’t be extradited and discrediting the victims,” said Kurt Gladsky, 54, who said he was molested in 1967 by a brother at Calvert Hall College High School, where he graduated in 1971.
When asked about sending clergy who have molested children to foreign lands, Cardinal George said he was shocked.
“I have never appointed a priest to any post or sent to a priest to any place if I knew he had sexually abused a child,” he said. “If someone has information about that, I’d like to get it.”
Reflecting societal trends outside the church, reported incidents of sexual abuse by priests are increasing, according to preliminary findings by researchers hired by the Catholic Church to examine what leads some priests to abuse children.
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, a division of the City University of New York, conducted the research, expected to be completed by 2008.
Divided into three components, the study will review the historical context of sexual abuse, individual dioceses’ responses to notorious cases of abuse after 1985 and the differences between priests accused of sexual abuse and sex offenders who are not priests. Through Thursday, bishops at the conference will continue to debate and vote on issues affecting the Catholic Church.
Join the discussion and take our poll in today's examiNation Baltimore: What do you think of Cardinal George's comment that victims of priest sexual abuse are only after money?
Comments from Examiner Readers
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Examiner Reader said:
The church has killed more people, lied to more people, cheated more people, and now they want to play politics. I think its about time they lost their tax exempt status since they want to dictate policy in this country. Maybe they should also take care of their own house first and not reward bishops who new of the pedofile problem for 25 years and kept quite. Now they reward those bishops with new cushie positions right near the vatican to keep them away from the faithfull in Boston.
140 agree | 156 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
the bishps should stay out of my politics, my bedromm and my wallet and worry about all the pedophile priests. and do not forget the leader of the catholic church once a member of the hitler youth.
145 agree | 150 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Cardinal George is just another Cardinal Law. Law gets promoted / rewarded to some Vatican position and Cardinal George gets elected to President of Cardinals for their effectiveness in hiding sexual abuse by their brothers in the priesthood. They both should be prosecuted and put in jail.
138 agree | 148 disagree
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Baltimore resident said:
Most people who have a problem with the Catholic Church don't take the time to study the actual teachings of the Church. They hear or read stories from people or in the paper. There is nothing wrong with Church teaching. You may not agree with it but fundamentally there is nothing wrong. This is about the take over of the Church my sexually obsessed men who are generally interest in preteens or teenage boys. Marriage would not help them. A straight man is not going to molest a boy because he can't have sex with a woman. The problem is you have liberal priests running a Church with conservative doctrines, thus, hippocracy.
140 agree | 149 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Axis of evil
150 agree | 90 disagree
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DNA Catholic said:
By the election of Cardinal George, the Bishops remind us once again how they don't give a hoot about kids, even when their colleagues sexually abuse them. That these men spend time around altars and ritual is truly disturbing on so many levels. Do people honestly believe that men who rape kids or enable the child rapists actually keep confessional secrets?
148 agree | 98 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Congratulations to Kurt Gladsky for not letting Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church silence him. His courage, and that of others like him, to speak the truth, is a bright light in the darkness of crisis. How can spiritual leaders fail to notice and act on the pain of the survivors and the dedication to truth that Mr. Galdsky's 14 hour journey shows. The election of Cardinal George runs salt into wounds begging for the balm of healing. Kristine Ward Voice of the Faithful
139 agree | 141 disagree
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Conscious Reader said:
Religious freaks and liars. They have been doing this for 100's of years. This is the only time that "WE" have been given access to enough information, and aren't afraid of them, that they are being exposed for what they really are. It is a shame in Africa and other third world countries, they are telling ignorant people not to use condoms, even though many of these people are dying from HIV/AIDS, devastating their countries, and leaving orphans in a death path, all in the name of god! They have been molesting children, and damaging childrens psychys for hundreds of years. It is time they are castrated and put out. When will we figure out that religion is code word for child abuse, the subjugation of women, and hatred. When they say suffer the little children, they meant it! You couldn't pay me to send my child to one of these places for "guidance"...no more than you could get me to send them for an overnight visit with Michael Jackson!
142 agree | 143 disagree
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reader said:
Those cowards want everyone to tell the truth , except themselves.
149 agree | 142 disagree
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reader said:
I wouyld love to hear about a couple of these guys getting bent over a table an dhave someone have their way with them. OH, they just might like it.
141 agree | 152 disagree
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reader said:
Here we go again. These cowards refuse to see the light and just keep on rewarding common criminals. The Catholic Church is still shameful and full of liars.
199 agree | 142 disagree
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