NOW WE KNOW! Catholic Archbishop Carlson Unclear Sex With Children a Crime
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Archbishop Robert Carlson of St. Louis, Missouri.
Can you say clueless?
The wave of sex abuse cases threatening the very foundations of the Roman Catholic Church in America by costing billions in legal fees and settlements is producing some strange developments.
Parishioners and religious people themselves are asking: "How could this happen?" Perhaps one indication of the problem's root is that some church leaders themselves apparently are unsure of the laws and their role in protecting children.
A most perplexing situation arose when St. Louis Archbishop Robert J. Carlson told attorney Jeff Anderson last month in a taped deposition that he wasn't certain he knew priest sex abuse was criminal when he served as auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis during the 1980s, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
"An archbishop's claim that he wasn't sure decades ago whether he knew an adult -- and, more specifically, a priest -- having sexual relations with a child was illegal has raised more than a few eyebrows," a St. Louis Missouri television station is reporting.
Carlson was interviewed the day before assuming leadership of the Roman Catholic archdiocese in St. Louis. The archdiocese has asked a Lincoln County judge to dismiss a lawsuit by the family of a teenage girl who claims Archbishop Carlson failed to prevent her molestation by a priest under Carlson.
"Archbishop, you knew the crime for an adult to engage in sex with a kid," Anderson said.
Carlson, though, expressed uncertainty: "I'm not sure whether I knew it was a crime or not. I understand today it's a crime."
Anderson continued his questioning, asking when Carlson first understood that it was illegal for priests to have sex with children.
"I don't remember," Carlson answered to both questions.
The archbishop apparently said he couldn't recall responses to the attorney's questions in 193 separate instances during the deposition, leading Anderson to ask if there was a physical illness impeding the faith leader's memory.
Carlson answered that he was affected by drugs he was taking for treatment of cancer.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Carlson did say that he knew specific contact between priests and children was illegal in relation to an alleged 1987 incident.
"But you knew a priest touching the genitals of a kid to be a crime, did you not?," Anderson asked, with Carlson responding, "Yes."
The deposition was taken in connection with a sex abuse lawsuit in Minnesota in which the plaintiff, known as "Doe 1," claims to have been abused in the 1970s by a priest named Thomas Adamson.
Carlson had a role in investigating sex abuse cases when he served in St. Paul and Minneapolis from 1979 to 1994, according to WLTX-TV. He came to the Saginaw Diocese after the death of Bishop Ken Untener in 2004.
Jeff Anderson & Associates, a law firm involved in the case, released documents showing that, despite his inability to remember key details, Carlson was seemingly aware of the criminal nature of these acts when he was working in Minnesota, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
In one letter Carlson wrote to then-Archbishop John R. Roach in 1984, he highlighted alleged abuse by the priest and said that the boy's parents were considering going to the police.
"The boy, apparently, still sees Tom Adamson -- at least according to the counselor. Because he is now 18 they are not concerned about sexual contact at this point," Carlson wrote. "The statute of limitations does not run out for 21/2 years. The mother and father are considering reporting this to the police."
Anderson has also taken Carlson's deposition for a priest sexual abuse case scheduled for trial July 7 in St. Louis. That deposition is under seal.
According to Anderson, Carlson was involved in handling sexual abuse cases in Minnesota for 15 years.
A videotape of the shocking interview with the attorney can be viewed on the following link:
See a Video of that Interview Here
Meanwhile, a pending book, "Potiphar's Wife: The Vatican Secret and Child Sexual Abuse," by Kieran Tapsell, asserts that the secrecy of the church in regard to sexual abuse of children by priests was dictated by Pope Pius XI in 1922 and reasserted by Pope John XXIII in 1962.
The order, termed in Latin "Crimen Solicitationis," directs bishops to work with offending priests and seems to sanction moving them to new parishes, a situation that has compounded the problem.
Tapsell wrote: "The 'cover-up' of child sexual abuse by the Catholic Church has been occurring under the pontificate of six popes since 1922.
"For 1500 years, the Catholic Church accepted that clergy who sexually abused children deserved to be stripped of their status as priests and then imprisoned. A series of papal and Council decrees from the twelfth century required such priests to be dismissed from the priesthood, and then handed over to the civil authorities for further punishment.
"That all changed in 1922 when Pope Pius XI issued his decree Crimen Solicitationis that created a de facto 'privilege of clergy' by imposing the 'secret of the Holy Office' on all information obtained through the Church's canonical investigations.
In theory, if the State did not know about these crimes, then there would be no State trials, and the matter could be treated as a purely canonical crime to be dealt with in secret in the Church courts.
"Pope Pius XII continued the decree. Pope John XXIII reissued it in 1962. Pope Paul VI in 1974 extended the reach of 'pontifical secrecy' to the allegation itself. Pope John Paul II confirmed the application of pontifical secrecy in 2001, and in 2010, Benedict XVI even extended it to allegations about priests sexually abusing intellectually disabled adults."
The 1983 Code of Canon Law imposed a five year limitation period which virtually ensured there would be no canonical trials, wrote Tapsell. It required bishops to try to reform these priests before putting them on trial. When they were on trial, the priest could plead the Vatican "Catch 22" defense -- he should not be dismissed because he couldn't control himself.
In light of these revelations, a rational observer might conclude that the long standing policy seemingly extending "clergy privilege" to sexual abuse of children might lead a figure like Archbishop Carlson to become confused when faced with the reality of dealing with such cases.
Is the "Crimen Solicitationis" the 'smoking gun" in the horrible skein of events rocking the church?
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dmaillette Says:
On June 23, 2014
at 08:15 AM
Pretty disillusioning. Took lots of courage to write this.
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Dave Rogers |
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