NYT/AP: Journalist Sues Iowa Archdiocese for Abuse

[DeepModem Mom]

Journalist Sues Iowa Archdiocese for Abuse
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 23, 2005
Filed at 12:35 a.m. ET


DALLAS (AP) -- An NBC News correspondent has accused the Catholic archdiocese in Iowa of covering up sexual abuse he suffered while an altar boy.

Jim Cummins said he was abused by three priests in 1962, when he was 17, while an altar boy in Cedar Rapids, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court in Iowa.

In a written response this week, the archdiocese denied the allegations and asked that the lawsuit be dismissed, The Dallas Morning News reported.

The archdiocese said even if the charges were true, the lawsuit was filed long after the statute of limitations -- which is two years in Iowa -- had passed.

Cummins filed the lawsuit last year, but it only became widely known this week when the archdiocese filed its response and identified Cummins as an NBC correspondent....


http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Priest-Abuse-Lawsuit.html

[pansypoo53219]

1. 2 years???

that is soooo backward.

[CoffeeCat]

2. Wow....that is shocking...

I graduated from the same Catholic High School in Cedar Rapids as Jim Cummins.

He graduated long before me, but he was a major hero. He was valedictorian and a well-known person who went on to do good things.

This is shocking.

I see that the archdiocese "denied the allegation". What is that supposed to mean? The asked these priests if they molested a child, and they said no--so the archdiocese considers it a closed matter? What a crock! Did these people learn ANYTHING from the molestation scandal?

Also...what's this malarkey about the "two year statute of limitations" that the archdiocese is using to make this case disappear. Are they actually saying that a child has two years to press charges--or the allegations are invalid?

I am getting sick just reading this stuff.

I read evil like this, and I wonder if anyone in the Catholic Church cares at all about children, decency or the teachings of Jesus Christ.

[Pirate Smile]

3. I also graduated from a Catholic High School in Cedar Rapids - long

after he did. Which High School did he graduate from? I wonder which parish he was in for elementary school. That would have probably been where the abuse took place. uuggghhh!

[CoffeeCat]

4. He graduated from Regis...

I just read another article, and the abuse happened to him when he was 17.

He's suing the Dubuque archdiocese. I don't remember if Cedar Rapids is include in that diocese or not.

[Iowa]

5. Yep, CR is in the Dubuque Archdiocese...

Isn't this outrageous? Contrast the reaction described in the article with the empty words of the Archbishop (Jerome Hanus) that were included in his Report on the Protection of Children and Young People dated February 18,2005 - just a few months ago:

"I use the occasion of this report to invite and encourage anyone who as a minor suffered sexual abuse by clergy or other church personnel to make contact with one of the Victim Assistance Coordinators or the Director of the Office for Protection of Children and Young People. We know there are more victims in our midst. When they feel and decide that the time is right, we will try our best to respond with compassion and understanding... We will continue to search for appropriate ways to help victims, their families, and their communities achieve healing and reconciliation. In closing, I apologize again for the hurt and the pain caused by the sexual abuse perpetrated by clergy and other church personnel. I am sorry...".

Empty words. A man like Mr. Cummins has the guts to come forth, and Hanus sicks the lawyers on him. Sickening. They haven't learned a thing. Go get 'em Jim Cummins!

[WhiteTara]

6. Religion is the scourge of the earth

I just read this great article that gives a good explanation of the madness called religion.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/attackonlondon/comment/story/...

snip

How could those who preach the absolute revealed truth of every word of a primitive book not be prone to insanity? There have been sects of killer Christians and indeed the whole of Christendom has been at times bent on wiping out heathens. Jewish zealots in their settlements crazily claim legal rights to land from the Old Testament. Some African Pentecostal churches harbour sects of torturing exorcism and child abuse. Muslims have a very long tradition of jihadist slaughter. Sikhs rose up to stop a play that exposed deformities of abuse within their temples. Buddhism too has its sinister wing. See how far-right evangelicals have kidnapped US politics and warped its secular, liberal founding traditions. Intense belief, incantations, secrecy and all-male rituals breed perversions and danger, abusing women and children and infecting young men with frenzy, no matter what the name of the faith.