Why is San Francisco’s top Catholic shielding pedophile priests?
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone — who earned a reputation as a right-wing hero by attacking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over her support for abortion rights — remains steadfast in his commitment to protect the identities of the pedophiles who preyed on children in the church.
On Sept. 29, a group of Catholic abuse survivors affiliated with the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests released their own list of sexual abusers from the San Francisco archdiocese. SNAP members stood in front of the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption on Gough Street to unveil a list of 312 men who allegedly engaged in rape, sexual assault, oral sex and sodomy in a spree of abuse spanning more than 100 years.
“The Diocese of San Francisco, like a lot of other dioceses, was involved in protecting and enabling shuffling and protecting predators for decades,” said Joey Piscitelli, who was raped and abused by a San Francisco priest and now serves as Northern California director for SNAP. “The diocese is reluctant to give out the names and wants to protect these people because they have liability.”
In 2018, Cordileone said the archdiocese had paid out at least $87 million in settlements to the victims of San Francisco priests. Sex abuse survivors have until the end of this year to file new claims, thanks to a 2019 state law that extended the deadline. Piscitelli sees Cordileone’s resistance as part of a strategy to keep more victims from coming forward.
When Piscitelli filed his lawsuit in 2003, he said his abuser was still working in a local school. Church officials told him that, after conducting a private investigation of their own, they had decided that his accusations against Whelan lacked credibility.
“They have a policy that, when people call and say that were molested or raped as children, the church does their ‘quote unquote’ independent investigation,” said Piscitelli. “And they nearly always find in favor of the accused priests. So right now, that I know of, there are three to four priests who have been accused and sued that are currently in ministry in San Francisco.”
Cordileone has cast his lot with the pedophiles and is using his power to suppress a full and transparent accounting of the truth. He’s trying to run out the clock on the church’s many sexual abuse victims, hoping they will remain silent about the plague of sexual abuse.
https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/why-is-s...0cc69.html
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone — who earned a reputation as a right-wing hero by attacking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over her support for abortion rights — remains steadfast in his commitment to protect the identities of the pedophiles who preyed on children in the church.
On Sept. 29, a group of Catholic abuse survivors affiliated with the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests released their own list of sexual abusers from the San Francisco archdiocese. SNAP members stood in front of the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption on Gough Street to unveil a list of 312 men who allegedly engaged in rape, sexual assault, oral sex and sodomy in a spree of abuse spanning more than 100 years.
“The Diocese of San Francisco, like a lot of other dioceses, was involved in protecting and enabling shuffling and protecting predators for decades,” said Joey Piscitelli, who was raped and abused by a San Francisco priest and now serves as Northern California director for SNAP. “The diocese is reluctant to give out the names and wants to protect these people because they have liability.”
In 2018, Cordileone said the archdiocese had paid out at least $87 million in settlements to the victims of San Francisco priests. Sex abuse survivors have until the end of this year to file new claims, thanks to a 2019 state law that extended the deadline. Piscitelli sees Cordileone’s resistance as part of a strategy to keep more victims from coming forward.
When Piscitelli filed his lawsuit in 2003, he said his abuser was still working in a local school. Church officials told him that, after conducting a private investigation of their own, they had decided that his accusations against Whelan lacked credibility.
“They have a policy that, when people call and say that were molested or raped as children, the church does their ‘quote unquote’ independent investigation,” said Piscitelli. “And they nearly always find in favor of the accused priests. So right now, that I know of, there are three to four priests who have been accused and sued that are currently in ministry in San Francisco.”
Cordileone has cast his lot with the pedophiles and is using his power to suppress a full and transparent accounting of the truth. He’s trying to run out the clock on the church’s many sexual abuse victims, hoping they will remain silent about the plague of sexual abuse.
https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/why-is-s...0cc69.html
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
