The most shocking news story of the year.

[Drake Tungsten]

So, why does the Catholic church have this problem?

Why do you assume that the Catholic church has a problem? Is there any evidence that there is a higher percentage of child porn enthusiasts/pedophiles in the Catholic priesthood than there is in the general population?

[loinburger]

Google says that the Catholic church has about the same percentage of pedophiles as any other institution.

[Asher]

So, why does the Catholic church have this problem?

Why do you assume that the Catholic church has a problem? Is there any evidence that there is a higher percentage of child porn enthusiasts/pedophiles in the Catholic priesthood than there is in the general population?

That article's already out of date that loin cited.

It seems to be quite popular.

BTW, just this week a guy -- who was not formally part of a church but was a teacher (at a Catholic school) who was also a camp counselor at a catholic summer camp -- was charged with trying to lure young boys into having sex with him.

Unfortunately, we'll never see the trial. The newspapers published his name, face, and email addresses and two days later he jumped infront of the subway train right at my old subway station.

[Wezil]

Couldn't even kill himself without ****ing people over.

[Heraclitus]

If a guy looks like, say, a Catholic Priest, they might get suspicious.

Oh, I get it so searching a priest for child pornography just because he is a priest is like stopping a muslim to see if he has a bomb strapped to him just because he is a muslim is like stopping a running black man because he is black.

[duke o' york]

Google says that the Catholic church has about the same percentage of pedophiles as any other institution.

Like Perverted-Justice for example?

[loinburger]

"Honest, I'm looking at kiddy porn for a noble cause!" *fap fap fap*

[Wezil]

So, why does the Catholic church have this problem?

Why do you assume that the Catholic church has a problem?

Their inability to address the issue is a problem.

Two decades ago, a young man poured his heart out in Rev. Kevin Molloy's Portugal Cove rectory.

Father Molloy said he was “appalled” to hear about the pornographic images the man allegedly found, as a teenager in the home of a fatherly clergyman, who would befriend boys at Newfoundland's Mount Cashel home and often take them out to movies or to his home for the weekend.

“Just the fact that he was a priest and this young boy would find this kind of material in the priest's rectory appalled me terribly,” Father Molloy told The Globe and Mail in an interview Monday night.

Father Molloy immediately told then-Archbishop Alphonsus Penney about the allegations about what had been found in Rev. Raymond Lahey's house. Then he phoned Father Lahey, who was in Cornerbrook at the time.

“I said, ‘Bishop Lahey, I'm calling you on a very serious matter…' He was quite aware of what I was saying.”

In the middle of the Mount Cashel sexual-abuse inquiry, Father Lahey knew exactly the kind of trouble that kind of discovery could cause, Father Molloy said.

“He said to me, ‘Would you keep in touch with me if anything were to come up?'”

Nothing happened, until Father Lahey was arrested and charged last week with possessing and importing child pornography.

Father Molloy, who now has a parish in Tarpon Springs, Florida, hasn't spoken with Father Lahey since that phone call in 1989, and was “in shock” when he found out about the child pornography charges last week.

“What really bothers me is that more than 20 years ago ... I had called him on this issue of pornography and obviously he didn't pay any attention.”

The young man, Shane Earle, was 16 when he alleges he found the catalogue of photos in Father Lahey's home of sexually aroused teenage boys.

“It changed everything for me. I couldn't talk about it, I couldn't rationalize it,” he said in an interview yesterday. “[Father Lahey] was probably the one person I really trusted. ... When you have that level of trust there, that's the last thing you would expect to experience.”

For years, he couldn't tell anyone. But in 1989, as the inquiry into the sexual abuse he experienced at Mount Cashel got under way, he came forward.

Mr. Earle says he can't understand why nothing happened until the former bishop was charged last week.

Mr. Penney, who could not be reached last night, resigned in 1991. He quit after an inquiry, which he had established, criticized his failure to deal with the problem of sexual abuse by clergy. The inquiry found that he had heard allegations against priests who were later convicted of abuse.

Any action he took against Father Lahey is unknown.

Father Lahey's career flourished. By the time the complaint was made he was serving as bishop of St. George's, on the western side of the province. He spent years there and was later made bishop of Antigonish. He resigned last month, a day after being charged.

Michael Edelson, Father Lahey's lawyer, said last night he had no comment on Mr. Earle's allegations.

The immediate distress at Father Lahey's arrest has been furthered by his recent role in brokering an historic $15-million settlement with victims of alleged sexual abuse, in which he was not personally implicated, going back decades. Allegations of misconduct on his part have infuriated parishioners.

“I don't see that I'd want to give five cents to pay for the defence,” Teresa MacCormac said from Antigonish Monday. “We have to get some kind of confirmation that if we're paying for the upkeep of the church we're not paying for the sins of these men. No way, let him find a way.”

Many parishioners had said last week that they would hold back during collection. After Sunday masses at St. Ninian's Cathedral in Antigonish several said they had given less. But it was not immediately known whether the total fell short of the $8,082 raised the previous weekend.

Questions were immediately raised after Father Lahey surrendered to police last week about who would be funding his court battle.

On Monday Archbishop of Halifax Anthony Mancini, who has temporarily taken over administration of the Antigonish diocese, moved to defuse the controversy.

“The bishop has not requested that the diocese meet his legal costs,” he said. “If that request were made, it would be declined by the diocese.”

The Archbishop also announced that “a group of competent individuals” would be convened to help provide care and assistance to those suffering as a result of the church's sex scandals.

On Sunday, in an anguished message read at every mass in the province, Archbishop Mancini compared the fallout of the latest of these scandals to the crucifixion.

“I have cried and I have silently screamed, and perhaps that was my prayer to God: Why Lord? What does all this mean? What are you asking of me and of my priests? What do you want to see happen among your people? Is this a time of purification or is it nothing more than devastation.”

Police in St. John's told CBC Monday they were unable to find any record of Mr. Earle's claims.

For Mr. Earle, who said he spent decades doing his best to put years of abuse out of his mind, last week's charges were a rude and traumatic awakening as to how little has changed.

“What we're dealing with today gives every indication that nothing happened, nobody followed up. I don't know if it was that nobody believed me at the time, but here we are 20-odd years later dealing with the same issues.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/church-officials-alerted-to-pornography-allegations-against-bishop-20-years-ago/article1313171/

[Asher]

Here's why he got inspected:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2009/10/08/ns-lahey-documents.html

Graphic content found in Lahey's laptop

Canadian border officials found sexually explicit images on Bishop Raymond Lahey's computer the day he was detained at Ottawa's airport and 10 days before he was charged with possessing child pornography, according to a search warrant document filed at the Ottawa courthouse.

The seven-page sworn statement, obtained by CBC News, describes why Lahey was pulled aside for a secondary examination as he re-entered Canada on Sept. 15, and contains detailed descriptions of images the officers allege they found on Lahey's laptop during the initial inspection.

Officers with Ottawa police and Canada Border Services Agency allege the images included graphic photographs of males, who police believe are under age 18 and who they suspect could be as young as eight.

The information was later used to obtain a search warrant for Lahey's laptop, as well as four memory sticks, three memory cards, two cellphones and a portable hand-held device.

Lahey, who was named bishop of Antigonish in 2003, was charged with possessing and importing child pornography on Sept. 25. He announced his retirement the next day, saying he was stepping down "for personal renewal."

He turned himself in to Ottawa police on Oct. 1 and was released on $9,000 bail the same day. His next court appearance is Nov. 4.
Passport inspected

The document says border services agent Venessa Fairey inspected Lahey's passport at her counter at Ottawa International Airport after his arrival on a flight from London, England. She noted he had made several trips to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Spain and Germany since 2005.

Fairey reportedly asked Lahey if he had a laptop computer, and Lahey hesitated before replying, "Yes."

The document says Fairey then flagged him for a secondary inspection for these reasons:

* He was a male travelling alone.
* He had travelled extensively to source countries for child pornography.
* He had evasive responses to questions pertaining to his possession of electronic media.
* There were changes in vocal tone during specific questions.
* He avoided eye contact during specific questions.

A second border services agent viewed three images on Lahey's laptop and arrested him for smuggling prohibited material into the country. During a subsequent interview with an Ottawa police officer, Lahey said he was attracted to males aged 20 to 21, the document says.

At the time, officers concluded they could not determine the ages of the males in the images and Lahey was released unconditionally, though his electronic devices were seized.

Another search revealed five more sexually explicit images, which featured males who, police said, appeared to be eight to 10 years old.

The document says investigators then stopped their inspection of the laptop and filed a warrant to conduct a thorough search.

[Ben Kenobi]

You must be Catholic, VetLegion, if that's what you think the problem is with this thread.

Erm, wtf? I never said that...

[Ben Kenobi]

Police in St. John's told CBC Monday they were unable to find any record of Mr. Earle's claims.

Thanks for playing Wezil.

[Ben Kenobi]

By this low standard, the survey found that about 40 priests, about 1.8 percent of the whole, were probably guilty of misconduct with minors at some point in their careers

I've highlighted this quote from Lorizael. Thanks.

[Asher]

Erm, wtf? I never said that...

WTF indeed.


WTF?

[Wezil]

Thanks for playing Wezil.

Because the church swept it under the rug rather than taking it to the authorities or checking into it further. Thanks for playing Ben.

If you want to argue he should have gone to the police himself I will agree. It is the utmost of folly to place your trust in the catholic church.