Showing posts with label Jeff Anderson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jeff Anderson. Show all posts

Saturday, August 5, 2017

New York Times Cites This Blog -- Evil Jesuit Firing Shots Across the Bow of Catholic Armada?

Edit: over the past few days, we've been getting a little bit of traffic, a trickle really, from the dispenser of fake news, the Old Gray Lady, which is the company paper of a Mexican globalist.  We've talked about them before when they acted as an instrument of Attorney Jeff Anderson's attack on the Catholic Church in the sex abuse crisis.  Their distortions and omissions should be familiar to those who study the news in these dark times.

Now they are issuing threats to faithful Catholics on behalf of the evil editor of the La Civiltà Cattolica, the decadent leftist Jesuit, Spadaro, the mouthpiece of Sauron himself, describing his own hit piece as a "shot across the bow." In their article, they refer to Church Militant, whose article we cited, as a "fringe" organization. Is that the same as being on the "margins" that the Holy Father talks about so often? Don't bet on it, them's not the kind of margins he's talking about. While they have time to threaten faithful Catholics, these are hard times for the Times, which has greater problems to deal with as it continues its own downward spiral to economic and cultural irrelevance. Perhaps now is the time that Church Militant will admit that we have a big problem in the Holy See?

  AMDG

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Activist Attorney Jeff Anderson Misrepresents Archbishop Carlson

Edit: The Kulturkampf continues. Here's a statement the Archdiocese of St. Louis.  Once again, a dishonest tactic employed by an activist attorney has misrepresented and defamed the good name of Archbishop Carlson.

I suspect this is an actionable item?  For the record:

This statement is intended to clear up confusion generated by the release on June 9, 2014, of a videotaped deposition of Arhbishop Robert J. Carlson, Archbishop of St. Louis. This deposition was taken in a lawsuit for damages pending in a Minnesota state court relating to events that occurred more than 30 years ago in Minnesota. Neither Archbishop Carlson nor the Archdiocese of St. Louis is a party to this case. Further, the Archbishop has been previously deposed by the same Plaintiff’s counsel on at least three separate prior occasions in the 1980s focused on the activities of the same priest that he was again asked about last month – 27 years later. Recent inaccurate and misleading reporting by certain media outlets has impugned Archbishop Carlson’s good name and reputation. During a press conference held on June 9, 2014, Plaintiff’s lawyer strategically took Archbishop Carlson’s response to a question out of context and suggested that the Archbishop did not know that it was a criminal offense for an adult to molest a child. Nothing could be further from the truth. Contrary to what is being reported, Archbishop Carlson is and has been a leader in the Church when it comes to recognizing and managing matters of sexual abuse involving the clergy. As far back as 1980, then-Father Carlson wrote “This behavior cannot be tolerated” in a memo referencing a priest’s abusive actions (Exhibit 301 of this case).

In the deposition video, which was released by Plaintiff’s counsel, the dialogue between Plaintiff’s counsel and Archbishop Carlson focused on Archbishop Carlson’s knowledge of Minnesota child abuse reporting statutes and when clergy became mandatory reporters. In the full transcript of Archbishop Carlson’s deposition, the actual exchange between Archbishop Carlson and Plaintiff’s counsel is quite different from what is being widely reported in the media. Plaintiff’s counsel began his line of questioning as follows:

Q. Well, mandatory reporting laws went into effect across the nation in 1973, Archbishop.

Charles Goldberg, attorney representing Archbishop Carlson at this deposition, explained that while current Minnesota law makes it a crime for clergy persons not to report suspected child abuse, that statute did not become effective until 1988. What Plaintiff’s counsel has failed to point out to the media is that Mr. Goldberg himself noted at this point in the deposition “you’re talking about mandatory reporting?” (emphasis added). When the Archbishop said “I’m not sure whether I knew it was a crime or not,” he was simply referring to the fact that he did not know the year that clergy became mandatory reporters of suspected child abuse (pgs. 108-109).

At another point in the deposition, the Plaintiff’s counsel attacked Archbishop Carlson about the answer “I don’t remember,” to which the archbishop’s legal counsel objected:

Q. [Plaintiff’s Counsel] Can you tell me today that you have no memory of ever having advised anybody to report to the police…? MR. GOLDBERG: Just a minute. I’m going to register an objection to that question. As I mentioned at the outset…you personally, Mr. Anderson, have deposed Archbishop Carlson on June 21st, 1985; March 30th, 1987; April 2nd, 1987; and May 4th, 1987 about each of these matters in some detail of which you had over 30 exhibits marked in those depositions, and I think in fairness to the Archbishop, if you want to ask him about these things and get specific answers, he needs to see these documents, because no human being can be expected to remember, regardless of how outrageous some of these matters may have appeared, to explain in detail those things to you without a reference to these depositions 25 to 30 years ago (pg. 19).

On page 22 of the transcript, Plaintiff’s counsel questions the Archbishop, who had repeatedly requested and was denied the ability to review case documents pertaining to the questions asked of him, and who, 27 years after last being deposed, is now being maligned for his inability to recall certain events.

To reiterate, Archbishop Carlson is not a party in this case, nor has he committed a crime. He has not only voluntarily participated in this legal process, he has offered his testimony as clearly and thoughtfully as possible, given both the span of time in which this discovery process has taken place and accessibility to certain documents.

The media reports of this deposition have not only called into question the exemplary record Archbishop Carlson has amassed during his more than 40 years of ministry, but has also reopened the wounds of survivors of the heinous act of sexual abuse, and has caused further pain to the Catholic Faithful, both here in the Archdiocese of St. Louis and beyond. These misleading and inaccurate reports have also resulted in negative commentary both in traditional as well as social media outlets. Nevertheless, the fact remains that Archbishop Carlson and the Catholic Church abhor any form of sexual abuse.


H/t Deacon Kandra. 

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Lawsuit Against Conservative Archbishop Flounders

Edit: a Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of conservative Archbishop Finn owned a computer with child pornography on it.  That's a fact.  Yet there is no description or understanding how they got there.  Like many other priests accused of such things, he was assumed to be guilty and suffered immediate consequences, and his superiors who were in the process of investigating the claim, were likewise accused of negligence. The appearance of digital images on a computer without demonstrable proof that it got there for this priest's "enjoyment" should not be enough to destroy a man's reputation, let alone a Catholic Archbishop's reputation.

There are a lot of questions, which are never posed in any of the coverage we've seen so far in this case.

How did the knowledge of the images' presence find their way to the Diocesan authorities?  Who sent them?

Apparently, the Judge has more sense than Anderson and Associates.  This case and others like it coming to light are an indication that this current assault on the Catholic Church, to the general exclusion of other institutions in society, on behalf of rare cases of child abuse, is starting to provide diminishing returns.

Also, most of the accusations stem from the years of moral relativism's triumph in 1968 when trendy revolutionaries were taking over and gutting Monasteries, Seminaries and churches for their own self-gratification and lust for power.  Many lefty j(There are now few Catholic religious in positions of authority, since they've been virtually hounded out of education) ournalists chaffed at the suggestion when the Pope made it, but it's absolutely true and those who scoff at it are unwilling to look at the actual data which justifies the claim.

http://www.andersonadvocates.com/Posts/Blog/858/The-Latest-Disappointment-from-Kansas-City.aspx

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

ACLU Anderson Continues Attack Against Church


Edit: the Vatican can't even get most parishes to follow the rubriks of the Liturgy or even follow guidelines regarding simple discipline of clerics who publicly disagree with Church teaching. It's not surprising that Bishops like Weakland and others were allowed to create a homosexual funhouse atmosphere which gave Anderson the opportunity to sue for millions.

Jeff Anderson routinely supports the ACLU and the Democratic National Committee. It is widely known that the DNC wants to legalize sexual contacts between adults and minors.

Even President Obama thinks it's a good idea for gids to be sexual.

Moreover, there's a striking similarity between the political and philosophical beliefs of Anderson and many of those he's litigating against.



Related Topics

MINNEAPOLIS | Mon Aug 22, 2011 5:19pm EDT
(Reuters) - A lawyer representing a victim of priest abuse in a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic church said on Monday Vatican documents show the church hierarchy and the pope were ultimately responsible.
A lawyer for the church disagreed, saying the newly released documents show the Holy See was not involved in the offending priest's transfer from Ireland to Chicago and then to Portland, Oregon, where the victim was a minor in the 1960s.

In April, U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman in Oregon ordered the Vatican to produce documents in the case that alleged a cover-up of priest sex abuse.

At the time, the judge's order was termed a "historic step" by attorney Jeffrey Anderson, who sued the Holy See in Rome and U.S. archdioceses and church officials on behalf of an unnamed man in Oregon.
Anderson said on Monday an analysis of the 1,856 documents written in Latin, Italian and English showed the Vatican had direct control over the placement and laicization of Rev. Andrew Ronan, who left the priesthood in 1966 and died in 1992.


Read further...

Monday, March 28, 2011

ACLU's Goal is Communism

Editor: Jeff Anderson is an ACLU member and given much money to them. You have to wonder what his motivations are when he aggressively litigates against slow moving targets like the Oregon Jesuit Province. Here's the link article from Spero News:

Ironic, isn't it? So much for "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." By combining straightforward segments from each ACLU rendering we arrive with an accurate portrayal. One that cuts through the doublespeak:

The ACLU is...working daily in courts, legislatures and communities. Communism is the goal.

In 1931, just eleven years after the ACLU's inception, the US Congress convened a Special House Committee to Investigate Communist Activities. On the ACLU it reported:

The American Civil Liberties Union is closely affiliated with the communist movement in the United States, and fully 90 percent of its efforts are on behalf of communists who have come into conflict with the law. It claims to stand for free speech, free press and free assembly, but it is quite apparent that the main function of the ACLU is an attempt to protect the communists.

Attorney: St. John's Abbey abuse suits settled

Editor: Make a decision. What is St. John's Abbey anyway? You want to be social workers, political activists, cavaliers or Monks? Is there anyone who thinks that this place will change its stripes without significant personnel changes? You can tell on the Prey, Tell blog that nothing's changed over there. They're still making excuses for irresponsible behavior and dishonesty over there.

If they're not capable of following even simple rules with respect to praying the Liturgy, you can't expect much else of them. It's probably a safe bet that they'll continue living double lives like David Berger, and they will continue ignoring whatever comes from Rome that doesn't comfit with their lifestyle, including the vow of chastity they took. It was part of Benedict of Nursia's famous Rule.

Anyhow who has read the rule, and knows this Modernist place of diabolical delusion will understand the great abyss that separates how these men live the Rule of St. Benedict and the Rule itself; sexual continence is more of a suggestion and don't get us started about poverty. Like parasitic worms, the Monks do almost none of their own labor; They subcontract, again, forget about the rule of St. Benedict on that subject:


Mar 28, 2011 10:53am
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ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Nine men who filed lawsuits claiming sexual abuse at the hands of monks or priests have reached settlements with St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, the plaintiffs' attorney said Monday.

The accused clergy all taught at St. John's Preparatory School or were assigned to parishes, attorney Jeff Anderson said. He declined to disclose a dollar amount.

The alleged abuse occurred from the 1960s to 2004, Anderson said. At least one of the alleged offenders is now dead.

The settlement requires St. John's to send a letter to anyone who attended the prep school, disclosing the names of alleged offenders against minors, Anderson said.

Anderson distributed a draft of the letter, which names 17 priests and brothers, to reporters on Monday. Anderson said he expects Abbot John Klassen, who heads the monastery, to sign the letter according to the terms of the settlement.

None of the men accused in the lawsuits still works at the school and none has ever been criminally prosecuted, Anderson said.

Link to article...

KMSP news, no financial settlement, but it frees those who were part of other settlements to speak.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Bishop Dolan Trashes Attorney ACLU Anderson

Editor: Finally, ++Dolan is catching on. He's an ACLU, Democratic National Convention supporter.

Groundless Gossip

I owe it to all of you — both the Catholic and wider community — to be very clear about the ridiculous and groundless gossip spread about me by a tort lawyer named Jeff Anderson.

You may have heard this man claim that, when I was Archbishop of Milwaukee, I “hid’ $130 million of archdiocesan funds so victims of clergy sexual abuse could not sue for it.

Malarkey! The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has an excellent record of fiscal integrity and transparency.  I worked hard at that, and my successor, Archbishop Listecki, continues to do so.  (By the way, you might also be interested to know that during my years as Archbishop of Milwaukee, and with the generous service of many dedicated people, we established a mediation process that reached settlements with almost 200 victim survivors; that mediation process has been praised by the victim survivors who have participated in the process.)

From the Diocesan paper, here.

H/t: Catholic Culture.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Are Democrats taking a leap of faith with lit piece? | Capitol View | Minnesota Public Radio

At least the Reds are mentioning us through NCR.

Just remember that Jeff Anderson, Dark anti-Catholic Paladin, gives a lot of money to the Democratic Farmer Labor Party, when he's not giving money to the ACLU or conspiring with Pinch Sulzberger to write new attack ads in promotion of his legal gambits.

Are Democrats taking a leap of faith with lit piece? | Capitol View | Minnesota Public Radio

Friday, September 24, 2010

Sex Abuse Lawsuit Moving to Subpoena Pope

Jeff Anderson keeps pushing this case, which he released initially in the New York Times. In the course of promoting his interests, and those of the people behind him at the ACLU, he is attempting to summon Pope Benedict to the stand where he wants to "cross examine" the Pontiff. Jeff Anderson isn't interested in the welfare of the victims, he's interested in the same agenda that two Belgian Bishops, a Viennese Cardinal, a smutty Romance Novelist are. However, a similar case in Kentucky, naming the Pope has recently been dropped. Actually, in fairness to Father Greeley, the author of pornographic novels he is, he says celibacy isn't the cause of the problem, only the "clerical secrecy" and so forth, as he parrots the same line used by Jeff Anderson and his professional help, Richard Sipe, who's spent years investigating the problem, but is driven by the same agenda that motivates Jeff Anderson, an ACLU lackey.

We've said it so many times, he's not so much interested in the welfare of his victims, as the Communists alleged to be concerned about the Scottsboro Boys, whom they used to create an emotional outpouring and then discarded after their political goals were met. This is one part of a continuous attack to destroy the credibility of Religion in general, and Catholicism in particular. What's even more interesting is that, based on the various statements from others within the Church, he has help. Liberal prelates and priests provide him and his masters with the fodder to litigate, and you have another emotional outpouring and an outcry for justice. This was done before in Nazi Germany when Germany's propaganda minister launched a campaign against the Catholic Church in the early 30s using precisely the same techniques being used by Jeff Anderson and his masters.

It's not a stretch to say it can't happen here. There are people who have an interest in undermining America's very foundations, its laws, its infrastructure, education system and culture. We're living in the days of tremendous debasement when an irreligious ex-Lutheran can do the bidding of irreligious Pinch Sulzberger at the New York Times to promote slanderous stories bent on destroying part of the fabric of American Society.

Just remember, Jeff Anderson has many friends within the Church, like him and him who aid his attempt to promote discredit and change the Catholic Church.


Sex abuse lawsuit involving Wisconsin priest names Pope Benedict as defendant :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Fallout Grows in ex-Minneapolis Cop's Molestation Case

Of course, if you can't count on those who've been deceiving the world for years about their status as Catholic religious to tell the truth, you can't count on these individuals at a prestigious, Waspy, Minneapolis Preparatory school to tell the truth either. The corruption of the best is indeed the worst, but the society at large must also suffer for this loss of innocence.

What is often portrayed as a problem exclusive to the Catholic Church is actually a problem of an increasingly barbaric and decadent West.

This may make it more difficult for Jeff Anderson to portray the Catholic Church as a monster for his ACLU and Socialist friends.

Attorney says Breck School knew Bill Jacobs had history of molesting boys. Former official denies it.


[Minneapolis Star] The lawyer who last month sued the Vatican and Pope Benedict for their handling of sexual abuse allegations within the church turned his attention Monday to a case that involves one of the state's most prestigious private schools.

Attorney Jeff Anderson, in a lawsuit filed in Hennepin County, said officials at Breck School committed fraud by hiring teacher Bill Jacobs in 1973, knowing he had a history of molesting boys and was considered a danger to children.

Jacobs sexually abused a 13-year-old Breck student in 1974, according to Anderson. Even after the boy and his father brought their allegations to the school's headmaster, John Littleford, Jacobs remained on the faculty through the school year. The suit maintains that Littleford "begged'' the boy and his father to remain quiet about the matter.


Read further at... Star and Tribune.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Legal Eagles or Opportunistic Buzzards?



Dante's Inferno contains a place just outside of Hell for Opportunists, men who avoided life's choices between good and evil and earned the contempt of both Hell and heaven. A conventional definition of the term, however, presents us with a more active declaration of evil in that opportunists are unprincipled people, often politicians, who pursue goals without respect to principle, without respect to good or evil. Indeed, St. Thomas Aquinas once said that "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in time of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality."

What can be said of Communists is that they make use of witting or unwitting soft-hearted and soft-headed men who believe that they are serving the greater good by working with them.

The American Civil Liberties Union, to which Jeff Anderson belongs, has long made a Crusade of its own attacking the appearance of Religion in public life wherever it can be found, and makes common cause in defense of perniciousness in society, while attacking the aemeliorating balm of Religion. They rather make a virtue of a vice and will trample every principle to defend the deliterious and crush the Church with calumnies, but insisting,conveniently, that there is no good or evil and that religion is solely at best a personal choice, at worst a severe debilitating delusion barring one (and perhaps one's surrounding society) from mental health, which should, therefore, not be shown any preferential treatement by the government or its representatives. Beneath all the rhetoric of neutrality and fairness ACLU maintains, it is never the less an organization poised with deliberate hostility and malice towards religion and particularly the Catholic Church.

Unfortunately, you won't read about this in the LA Times.

If ever there was justification for unleashing the law's hounds of hell, complicity in harming a child is it. Few are sympathizing with the church hierarchy who looked the other way from the pedophilia and pederasty in their midst. But it is the faithful who are being asked to pay millions for the sins of the fathers, and innocent children who must bear the scars. [Again, failure to put the blame where it belongs] So INSIGHT recently found two of the most active advocates to square off in separate interviews on the issue of the more than 200 sexual-abuse lawsuits targeting the Roman Catholic Church in the United States.

The legal fallout from the sexual-abuse scandals currently threatening Catholic archdioceses around the country soon may be large enough to bankrupt them. And the frenzy shows little sign of abating--next in the crosshairs as these scandals grow, say critics, will be the Protestant churches.

"I brought one of the first cases in the U.S. against the Catholic Church involving child sexual molestation" Minnesota attorney Jeffrey Anderson of Reinhardt and Anderson tells INSIGHT. "Since that time [1983] I've handled over 1,000 cases of child sexual molestation by various religious organizations. Over 600 of them were Catholic clergy." [It has long been a tactic of Communists to back a cause that people unsympathetic to dialectical materialism can get behind.]


Link to original...

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Profile on the Author of the Milwaukee Schmear Against Pope Benedict

What you have here is a man who has unseen loyalties to powers and principalities, to organizations that have the destruction of the Catholic Church as their fundamental aim. This is the motive force behind the current orchestrated scandal, perhaps it's a part of what Fr. Malachi Martin termed, the "Superforce".

Jeffry Anderson is described as a man, ironically, on a "Crusade" against the Catholic Church. It's not just Jeffrey Anderson who is liable to be described in this way. Certain individuals, indeed, entire nations and political movements in history, have enjoyed and benefitted from their enmity with the Catholic Church, entities like Stalin's Soviet Union and Hitler's Germany. Like the aforementioned regimes, Jeff Anderson has a certain affiliation and kinship to powers of such malevolence, that their hatred of Christ was the scene of mass starvation and some of the greatest untold crimes of the last two centuries. What shouldn't be so startling to anyone is the fact that Communists do use the tactics being employed by Jeff Anderson, here. The erstwhile graduate from the provincial William Mitchel School of Law,  has come to do battle with the Catholic Church, as a member of the American and Minnesota Civil Liberties Unions and also claims a certain spiritual connection with a vague and ambient spirituality reminiscent of Gnosticism, which is fitting since his claims must certainly rely and on occult knowledge of a diabolical nature.

Now, we've mentioned that he is a member of the culturally Marxist, ACLU and Minnesota Civil Liberties Union. Their hostility to Catholicism in particular and religion in general is well-established, so then it follows logically that Mr. Anderson is acting according to his principles in attacking the Catholic Church, since we can hopefully assume that he shares the views and tactics of those antagonists of Religion.

But what of the Pedophile Connection?

Well, Jeff claims to be attacking the Catholic Church on behalf of the victims. Perhaps they are more of a utility than a heartfelt aspiration on his part to see Justice done. Indeed, he had been taking these cases for 10 years prior to the event of his daughter's alleged molestation, which he maintains was what began his "Crusade" in earnest, at the hands of an ex-priest who was acting as a therapist to deal with emotional issues related to his divorce. Catholicism rejects divorce, but surely, he bears some responsibility for that and sending your daughter to an ex-priest: isn't that res ipse loquitur that the negligence belongs to the nature of the act of sending one's 8 year old daughter to an ex-priest as a result of one's own inability to hold together one's own family?

Lest you think we're being unfair, it has to be said that Mr. Anderson wasn't being terribly fair when he failed to contact any of the key figures in the case beforehand for their account, indeed, when you compare the two stories alongside, Mr. Anderson's suffers from a profound lack of coherence and, well, just plain old truth. Mr. Anderson maintains that the Catholic Church had covered up the abuse and had not done anything about it, and is clumsily attempting to portray Pope Benedict as engaging in a cover up, when the details of the case indicate plainly otherwise, that it was in fact the Vatican that stepped in and dealt with the case in 2005 as Father Thomas Brandage indicates, here calling Jeff Anderson's and the New York Times' work, "sloppy and inaccurate".

Is Archbishop Weakland a Good Source?

Well, he's been caught lying so many times that it's strange that the New York Times would rely on him as a source, as Father Raymond de Souza points out here as he lays out his own timeline of events related to the case, in defense of the Papacy, here.

Father de Souza maintains that +Weakland isn't a good source because he himself is an abuser who stole $450,000 to pay an extortionist, but what of our ACLU and MCLU member and "Crusder" Jeff Anderson whose supposed concern for the poor is far more interwoven with an international effort to discredit the Church, by any means necessary, even resorting to libel.

The Democratic Connection

We made a moment out of Jeff Anderson's supposed concern for the victims of clergy abuse, but what about the potential future victims of Democratic Party Politician abuse as the Democratic party intends on decriminalizing sex with children and wants to count pederasts as a protected class in Hate Crimes Legislation, here, and the vote count, here.

Never mind that, in a strange parallel, it is the German politician, Sabina Leuthesser, who is attacking the Catholic Church in Germany, like the Democratic Party in the United States, a party for the normalization of sex with children. Now you might not think that Jeff Anderson would have anything to do with this, but it was, after all, his party and co-religionists in Germany who are promoting the normalization of sex with children. We say this because Mr. Anderson has given a portion of the millions (according to Bill Donahue), to the various extremely liberal candidates and committees of the Democratic Party, here, as his contributions approach $60,000 in the year 2008.

Mr. Anderson professes a love for "spiritual" things and as a baptized Lutheran who was once married to a Catholic, indeed, he sits amidst what looks like a religious arts and furnishings shop (or pirate's trove) at his St. Paul office, it probably serves him well to soften his image by an appeal to the vague spiritual confessions held by so many people who'll be susceptible to his misleading and frankly mendacious account of the Pope Benedict's involvement in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee with Father Lawrence Murphy who was suspended from priestly duties in 1985 when he was dismissed from the St. John's School for the Deaf about which, he again wrongfully declares, that then Cardinal Ratzinger attempted to cover it up.

Unsatisfactory Results

If the quality of Mr. Anderson's efforts as a public relations man is any reflection on his legal abilities, it would be easy to see why he was outmaneuvered (deliberately?) at St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota where he stage managed his confrontation with what he called centuries of "secrecy" and abuse of power.

We wonder why Mr. Anderson doesn't do more to chase the pederasts in the party he supports with the money he gains, but what of his effectiveness in dealing with pederasts in the past? Well, at St. John's Abbey in Collegeville where he began, the arrangement he helped forge there is no longer effectively in place and the very liberal Benedictines, who shares many of his political believes and those of the Democratic Party, are no longer in place. The 10 or so credibly accused pederasts at St. John's are free to roam the globe, despite the false claims of "restriction". One of the priests, Father Dunstan Morse, has even appeared in photographs with acclaimed author Kathleen Norris as a consultant to her book, Cloister Walk, here(pdf) and in her more recent book, Acedia and Me, here (pdf). It might be easy to see how those on the outside might view Mr. Anderson's legal work as uninspiring.

Well, the Mexican Government was certainly unimpressed with Mr. Anderson and David Clohessy's efforts, as they were barred for five years from entering Mexico when they attempted to serve the Archbishop of Mexico City.

If it weren't for all of the lawsuits he's filed against them over the years, considering the non-enforceable agreement he made with him and the fact that none of the perpetrators went to jail. It might be easy to see how they were in collusion together; perpetuating the problem, rather than adverse parties as we might suppose if we believed what was in the pages of Pinchy Sulzberger's New York Times.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Attorney Jeff Anderson Leaked Benedict-Milwaukee Sex Abuse Story to New York Times

Jeff Anderson has long been a very active person attacking the alleged "medievalism" and culture of "secrecy" of the Catholic Chuch. Now he's been responsible for conspiring with Pinchy Sulzberger's very anti-Catholic New York Times in the latest Milwaukee press release involving that old abusing boogey man hinmself, Arcbishop Rembert Weakland.

Standing beside a portrait of Martin Luther King Jr., the increasingly vocal antagonist of the Catholic Church has shown himself to have a reach extending beyond the street and quiet graceful neighborhoods of St. Paul, Minnesota.

Jeff Anderson's Crusade Against the Catholic Church

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Jeff Anderson has filed thousands of lawsuits alleging sex abuse by priests and won tens of millions of dollars for his clients, but he has had a bigger goal in mind for nearly two decades. He wants to bring his career-long legal crusade against misconduct in the Roman Catholic Church right to the top. He would love to question Pope Benedict XVI himself under oath. Though that is extremely unlikely given that the pope is a head of state, documents Anderson has unearthed have the potential to take a scandal that has plagued dozens of dioceses around the world and place it at the doorstep of Vatican leadership. The documents, which became publicly known in the past week after Anderson shared them with The New York Times, show that a Vatican office led by the pope, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, halted a church trial against a Wisconsin priest accused of molesting some 200 boys at a school for the deaf. “This is a tipping point,” Anderson said. He found the documents in handling one of the dozens of lawsuits he has pending against various church officials, and hopes to use them to bolster a separate federal lawsuit against the Vatican itself. Since 1983, Anderson and the five other attorneys at his downtown St. Paul firm have sued thousands of Catholic priests, bishops, and dioceses over allegations of sexual abuse by priests and other church leaders. He claims to have no idea how much he has won in settlements; in 2002 he estimated that it was around $60 million. “It’s not about the money,” Anderson told The Associated Press. The self-described “former atheist” who rediscovered faith in God through his recovery from alcoholism professes a deep empathy with abuse victims – he calls them “survivors.” More than a decade after his legal battles with church officials began, Anderson’s adult daughter revealed that as an 8-year-old she was molested by a therapist she was seeing as Anderson and his first wife were going through a divorce. The therapist, Anderson said, was a former Catholic priest. Anderson, 62, said the pain of that revelation “brought another dimension to the experience.” But he said he concluded years earlier that the responsibility for shuffling around problem priests and covering up their indiscretions would extend to the Vatican. “I came to the stark realization that the problems were really endemic to the clerical culture, and all the problems we are having in the U.S. led back to Rome,” Anderson said. “And I realized nothing was going to fundamentally change until they did.” The Wisconsin documents tie Benedict, who as cardinal led the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, to the decision in the mid-1990s not to defrock the Rev. Lawrence Murphy despite allegations that the Milwaukee priest molested some 200 deaf boys from 1950 to 1975. The Vatican is defending that decision, saying the case reached the Vatican only in 1996, two years before Murphy died. Church officials also say Murphy had repented in a letter to Ratzinger, and that the case’s statute of limitations had run out. They decry criticism over the case as an effort to smear the pope. The Milwaukee lawsuit does not name Pope Benedict or other Vatican leaders as defendants, but Anderson hopes to use it to bolster a separate lawsuit filed eight years ago in U.S. District Court in Oregon. In that case, an unidentified plaintiff claims he was sexually abused as a teenager in 1965 or 1966 by the Rev. Andrew Ronan at St. Albert’s Church in Portland, Ore. According to court documents, Ronan was accused of abusing boys in the mid-1950s as a priest in the Archdiocese of Armagh, Ireland. He was transferred to Chicago, where he admitted abusing three boys at St. Philip’s High School, and after that was sent to Oregon. The church removed Ronan from the priesthood in 1966. He died in 1982. The lawsuit says the Vatican had to approve the international transfer. The Holy See claims it is protected by the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which prohibits U.S. lawsuits against foreign countries. Several lower courts have produced differing rulings on the suit, and the Holy See has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to settle the question. The high court has not decided whether it will hear the case. Anderson said his legal team will attempt to use documents from the Milwaukee lawsuit to show the Vatican was heavily involved in decisions about how to deal with problem priests. Legal scholars have long been skeptical of Anderson’s chances of penetrating the Vatican’s foreign sovereignty. He said it may be difficult to persuade judges to consider documents from another lawsuit, but added that he feels “closer than we’ve ever been before.” “If there’s anyone to press this case, it’s Jeff,” said David Clohessy, national director for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a longtime ally of Anderson. “Jeff doesn’t get sole credit, and he wouldn’t claim it, but he was among the very first to see the magnitude of this cover-up and is still among the most dedicated to its undoing.” Jeffrey Lena, the Berkeley, Calif.-based attorney for the Holy See in the Oregon case, declined to comment for this story. Andrew Eisenzimmer, a lawyer for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, has sparred frequently with Anderson and declined to be interviewed. In earlier interviews with the AP, he described Anderson as “prone to exaggeration” but also said he’s been undeniably successful. Anderson has always had a flair for the public relations aspect of his work, and a visit to his office the day after the Milwaukee story broke found him fielding interview requests from numerous media outlets as lawyers and researchers combed through documents on the large, dark wood table in his office. Anderson was raised Lutheran and his first wedding was in the Catholic Church, though he said his spiritual journey no longer involves church attendance. His office, however, is full of religiously symbolic art and sculpture, as well as items salvaged from churches – including a kneeler and confessional booths. Anderson downplays the significance of the Christian objects, pointing out he also displays Buddhist and Native American religious relics. “I like religious iconography,” he said.

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Televised Press Conference by Jeff Anderson: