LA Church Records Confirm That Priest Childhood Sexual Abuse Was Hidden From Police
After more than six years of pie crust promises, secret internal church records which were promised to the public
in 2007 have finally seen the light of day. The New York Times reported yesterday that The Los Angeles Times on
Monday posted online the documents behind the previous $660 million church settlement in California with child
sexual abuse survivors of priests of the Roman Catholic Church. The story can be found at –
The documents clearly show that high ranking church officials in Los Angeles “worked quietly to keep evidence of
child molesting away from law enforcement officials and shield abusive priests from criminal prosecution.”
The documents confirm that shielding abuser priests from the police and covering up their crimes was the standard
operating procedure in the Roman Catholic Church for decades, and not just in Los Angeles, but worldwide.
Throughout my recent book, “When Priests Become Predators: Profiles of Childhood Sexual Abuse
Survivors” (2012), I document in detail the identical tactic used by the Catholic Bishop in the Diocese of Wilmington
Delaware. For example, in chapter four, at pages 217-218, three pages of church records on priest Walter D. Power,
who was first ordained in 1952, are discussed. While stationed at a Wilmington parish, in 1957 at least one family had
gone to the Delaware State Police to have Power arrested on a “morals charge.” A state trooper then warned the
coadjutor bishop of the pending arrest and the bishop immediately went to the parish and ordered Power to flee the
state. He left at once and was hidden out in Maryland assignments for the rest of his career, out of the reach of
Delaware law enforcement.
It appears that the highest church officials in California and Delaware, 3000 miles from each other, when it came
to keeping their priests out of the hands of law enforcement, were operating from the same world-wide church play
book which was designed to cover-up the abuse of children by its priests and to prevent the application of the
criminal laws to them.
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