Attorney Jeffrey Anderson, who has made multiple efforts to lodge a sex-abuse lawsuit against the Vatican, has filed a new suit charging that two Pontiffs--Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI--should be held responsible for the abuse committed by a former Chicago priest, Daniel McCormack.
Jeffrey Anderson went from living out of his Volkswagon in the 1980's to suing the Vatican. Timing is everything. Jeffrey Anderson first sued a Catholic Church when his client a homeless lost soul urinated in the vestibule. Jeff settled his nuisance claim out of court. That was this ambulance chaser's epiphany - the Catholic Church is loaded; bring suit - will travel.
This moral and ethical equivalent of homophobic nutback Preacher Terry Jones, has made millions and a public relations empire. No fool he, Anderson uses SNAP to troll for anyone who wishes to make a claim against the Catholic Church. Jeff Anderson sucked onto the Chicago Archdiocese, while he was looting the Joliet, Illinois Diocese - the time of Dan McCormick case. Anderson is now linking that pedophile convict priest to the Vatican.
Here is the essence of this advocacy ambulance chaser:
Anyone who thinks Jeffrey Anderson is in it just for the money is nuts. Sure, he's made a fortune suing the Catholic Church over old cases of alleged priestly abuse, but money alone cannot account for his latest vendetta. Now he's engaged in a media ad campaign to find anyone who claims he was abused by a priest, regardless of how flimsy the evidence or when the alleged act occurred. It matters not a whit whether the priest is long dead and cannot defend himself.(emphasis my own)
In one sense, Anderson is doing us a favor: the cat's out of the bag. His integrity is shot. Any lawyer who would conduct a public relations hunt for one class of people to sue is not interested in justice. Quite frankly, if Anderson were concerned about all victims of abuse, he would not exclusively target alleged Catholic ones.
Imagine for one moment if a lawyer launched an advertising campaign pledging to find every last person who was ever abused by a public school teacher. Or imagine a campaign that sought to locate only those persons who were victimized by an Orthodox rabbi? The mind boggles just thinking about it. Anyone familiar with the data on sexual abuse knows that a) the Catholic Church never had a monopoly on this problem to begin with and b) it has less of a problem today than any other institution, secular or religious (the average number of credible accusations made against over 40,000 priests in the last five years is 8.6).
Anderson's mad quest for new Catholic victims is of a piece with his pathological fixation on the Catholic Church. We've been on to his game for many years; his latest gambit should convince everyone of his real motive. It is not justice that drives him and his army of lawyers--it is a debased appetite to get the Catholic Church.
It's time for a Catholic revolt. While all sexual abuse must be condemned unequivocally, all attempts to shake down one segment of the population must also be condemned. Bigotry has no legitimate role to play in the pursuit of justice.
This guy and Terry Jones are brothers under the skin.
You will find Jeffrey Anderson where there is a buck, a microphone, TV camera, and a cast of anti-Catholic bigots - MSNBC, Huffington Post e.g.!
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2003_01_06/2003_04_16_Schimke_TrueBeliever.htm
1 comment:
"While all sexual abuse must be condemned unequivocally, all attempts to shake down one segment of the population must also be condemned. Bigotry has no legitimate role to play in the pursuit of justice."
I agree on both counts. There WERE and ARE real abuse cases (although the numbers are going down dramatically) in the Catholic Church and there were and are bad responses and cover ups by the hierarchy. BUT if you read the NYT and other papers or watched TV you would think that ONLY the Catholic Church has this problem. In fact the stats are the Catholic Church has this problem less and is cleaning house. Orthodox Rabbis have had this problem (there are whole websites dedicated to it but NO front page news stories or Nightline reports) and the largest amount of underage abuse is in the Public Schools.
Again, this does not justify that which is wrong but there should be some context and fairness that this is put in.
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