PERVERT PRIESTS: ARCHDIOCESE OF THE ANGELS SHOULD ...

... give up the Cardinal's papers ... at least up to but not including previleged material.

Lawyers for Cardinal Roger M. Mahony say they will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a court order forcing the archdiocese to disclose the confidential personnel files of two former priests accused of child molestation.

As a pastor I'm sitting here trying to imagine what might cause the archdiocese to want to withhold personnel files. The only things I can think of are church-state issues, previleged material, or a cover-up!

As a parent I'm wondering why any parent would want to continue putting their children at risk. If the Catholic Church were a household CPS would have hauled the whole bunch off to foster care and jail.

The state Supreme Court let stand without comment an appellate court order that the archbishop must give the documents to a grand jury.

The church argued that disclosure would represent government infringement on religious freedom, but the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles ruled in July that the file release "will not result in excessive [government] entanglement."

Okay, let's give the folks the benefit of the doubt. Let's say the court errored (NOT THE FIRST TIME, RIGHT?), will they turn them over if the high court says they must? Render unto Caesar is the working rule in these cases ... we'll see, won't we?

In a letter dated Thursday, attorney Jeffrey S. Koenig asked the appellate court to delay its final order while the church appeals to the highest court.

"If the privileged documents are turned over to the grand jury, our efforts to obtain further appellate review will be rendered moot," he wrote in a two-page letter to Presiding Justice Joan Dempsey Klein.

Aha! The notorius "privileged" pops up. But that is from the pen of a lawyer, a group worthy of acute distrust, and a defendent known as the Parish of Perverts by this Christian.

Criminal prosecutors and lawyers suing the church in civil court for allegedly failing to protect more than 560 children from predator priests said the rulings could set the stage for widespread disclosures of internal church documents.

My personal view is that the church has nothing to hide from the public ... except in two areas; first, in the area of the congregation's personal financial records and, second, in the area of legitimate personal counseling, whether spiritual or secular. A major embarrassment for the Archdiocese of the Angels awaits if it is not one of these!

Catholic; Christianity; Church; Paedophile priests; Priests