Toronto’s failed response to Bishop Lahey child porn [Addenda I & II]

Archbishop of Toronto Thomas Collins spoke Thursday to the legitimacy of public outrage in public outrage at clerical involvement in the child pornography industry. Addressing issues raised by arrest on child pornography charges of former Antigonish Bishop Raymond Lahey, Collins told those gathered at the annual Cardinal’s dinner:

The pain of scandal comes first of all because the fact of the evil itself is shocking, especially when it involves the abuse of the young and the vulnerable. To think of the multi-billion dollar industry of sexual exploitation is to be enraged; it is a scourge upon our society.

Although those who pause to reflect will recognize that this massive evil industry is hardly being sustained by the patronage of the clergy of any faith, if a priest or bishop engages in this iniquity, the outrage is all the more intense, and rightly so, for we who are ordained are called by God, and entrusted with the service of His people; any abuse of that trust is a betrayal of our vows to God, and of the people we are consecrated to serve.

Lahey, who in August negotiated a $15-million settlement with victims of sexual abuse by priests in Antigonish for incidents dating back to January 1st of 1950, was found by custom officials at Ottawa International Airport to have “images of concern” on his notebook computer.

The Canadian Broadcasting Company reported that the objects of concern included 964 image files and 33 videos, “with many showing what police believe are young males involved in sexual acts.”

Ronald Martin, who launched a class-action lawsuit on behalf of himself and others who were sexually abused by priests in the Roman Catholic diocese of Antigonish and saw Lahey frequently while negotiating the settlement, said the incident “was the ultimate revictimization for every single one of us.”

Lahey played an at times vocal role in addressing sex-related issues, opposing same-sex marriage and encouraging parents to resist public school sex education efforts. In August when the settlement was announced, Lahey said the church had “been taking steps to protect children and youth.”

The combination of that decades-deep history of clerical sex abuse of parishioners, Lahey’s role as a key spokesman and Lahey’s involvement in child pornography is a pattern. That pattern does not affirm Archbishop Collins’ argument that the scandal is “like airplane crashes,” which “are dramatic exceptions to the fundamental reality.”

The archbishop’s desire to reassure the faithful is natural but arguing that nothing truly fundamental is amiss is unpersuasive.

Addendum

Canada’s child pornography laws summarized here.

Addendum II: What made them search a bishop?

From Religital:

Bishop Raymond Lahey avoided eye contact, changed his vocal tone and gave evasive responses when a border agent at Ottawa International Airport questioned him last month about his electronic equipment.

Standard reasons that are often wrong, but which in this case proved to be on point.

Home: An all-sky panorama of our Milky Way

Axel Mellinger, a physics professor at Central Michigan University, spent 22 months and traveled over 26,000 miles, ultimately using a Linux computer to apply the complex mathematics required to assemble 3,000 individual charged couple device images into this high-resolution, all-sky mosaic.

Imaged from dark-sky locations in South Africa, Texas, and Michigan, the resulting view of our home galaxy is one no star-gazer could ever see from any single spot on earth.

We recommend you explore an interactive version at his website. Download the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific paper detailing his effort [.pdf].

The full image is probably best viewed via modern, full-dome planetarium projection systems, like those employed by the Morehead Planetarium at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C.

SBC predator database, for children’s sake

Southern Baptist Convention heavyweights should think of youngsters who would be spared by a database of Baptist clerical sexual predators, like the one the SBC rejected in 2008. Not, events in Alabama suggest, hypothetical youngsters. Former pastor Ralph Lee Aaron’s Victory Baptist Church transgression would have been recorded, had a well-managed database existed at that time. Rather than left to late detection by a mother, whose alertness led to Aaron’s arrest:

The investigation began last Tuesday after a mother, who had heard rumors of a previous incident involving Aaron, had a “straightforward” conversation with her son. That incident stemmed from a 2005 complaint that occurred while Aaron was serving at Andalusia’s Victory Baptist Church. No charges were filed in the 2005 complaint, which was investigated by the Covington County District Attorney’s office and the Department of Human Resources.

As a result of that conversation, the mother determined her son may have had inappropriate contact with Aaron, and she elected to contact authorities.

“Surprisingly, (the victim) was open and honest, and they discussed it at length before contacting law enforcement,” [lead sheriff’s investigator Wesley] Snodgrass said. “It was quickly identified as a substantial case.”

Aaron was arrested Oct. 21 and is being held on $24.2 million bond for more than 150 sex crimes involving child pornography and the abuse of eight- to 12-year-old victims. District Attorney Greg Gambril said the Covington County Sheriff’s Department has put together a “very strong case” and that the state will be seeking multiple life sentences.

You can see, then, that many clerical predators are not found in existing criminal sex-offender registries. Because many are never convicted of a crime. Yet they would be recorded in a well-managed denominational database of credibly-accused clergy, like the one the SBC rejected in June of 2008.

Religious sexual predators may be the worst, as we recently documented, and the continuously growing, substantially avoidable human price of inaction is high.

Christa Brown explores the issue in detail.

Er, no they didn’t

Yes, this was listed without comment as part of a regular feature at the news site Baptists Today:

Vatican condemns Hallowe’en as anti-Christian

That headline and story compose one, long error. The fact that a story is in L’Osservatore Romano, the official Vatican newspaper, does not make the contents of the story Vatican policy. And as tmatt writes at GetReligion

Read the story and see if you can find any material that is actually from the Vatican.

None.

Worst headline of the week nominee

Surely Catholic author David Gibson knows that reference to a “trick” in a discussion somehow regarding sex will for many readers bring extraordinarily secular images powerfully to mind.

Even so, here is the headline for his blog on the Vatican’s latest proclamation regarding marriage, sex & Tiber-swimming Anglican priests:

Celibacy and Anglican orders: Trick? Or Treat?

Leers, like batteries, sold separately.

Digital Open uplifter

Digital Open was for any, 17 or younger. There are eight grand prize winners, and Harry Lee, below, is both realistic and uplifting.

Halloween Creative Commons mix for the party non-attenders, the tricked & the retreated

Join the playfully musical for a moment of musical amusement whose breathless lyrics recall grandparental attempts to be frightening. Brewed by Irene Rible. [H/T to BoingBoing] & yes, our pumpkin is pro-life tonight.