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Criminal wrongdoing of bishops would be difficult to prove, experts say.(The Dallas Morning News)
DALLAS _ Grand juries are walking where prosecutors have previously feared to tread: investigating the American hierarchy of the Catholic Church. And that raises the question: Might bishops _ or even cardinals _ face criminal charges for their roles in the priest sexual-abuse scandals?
The answer is less certain than the outrage.
Prosecutors, legal experts and Catholic leaders _ even bishops and cardinals _ agree that bishops across the country used terrible judgment. Civil juries have found church leaders liable for hundreds of millions of dollars in damages for conspiring to cover up the acts of sexually predatory priests. Five years ago, Dallas was the scene of the largest such judgment, in the Rudy Kos case.
And dozens of current or former priests, including Kos, have been convicted of sex crimes.
But are the leaders criminally responsible for allowing the abuses to happen over decades _ or for covering them up? Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua of Philadelphia, Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk of Cincinnati, Bishop William Murphy of Long Island and Bishop Anthony Pilla of Cleveland have been the particular focus of criminal investigators recently. But could they or other national or local church leaders actually face the possibility of jail time?
"If this was the average Joe, instead of bishops and cardinals, we would not believe ...
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- Newspaper article from: Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, WI) Schuetz, Lisa December 14, 2002 700+ words
...comments about Cardinal Bernard Law's resignation Friday, Catholic leaders in Wisconsin refrained from condemning the Boston Archdiocese...change the way churches deal with sexual misconduct. Most church leaders around the state Friday did not make themselves available...
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- Newspaper article from: Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL) Ahern, Sheila March 28, 2006 700+ words
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...has distributed a detailed memo warning bishops and other church leaders against political activity that could jeopardize the church...expensive lawsuit that grew out of alleged political activity by Catholic leaders during the 1980 presidential election, when the Abortion...
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...novel, "White Smoke," in which church leaders come across as bumbling fools, will...venal, incompetent and hidebound church leaders trying to block the election of a liberal...Greeley's writings, but privately church leaders are said to be appalled by his steamy...
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...possibility of eating their cabbage and potatoes straight up. Church leaders in Chicago and six other church districts have decided to...Christ. In 1966 Pope Paul VI issued a document allowing church leaders in each country to establish rules on doing penance. United...
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- Newspaper article from: The Christian Science Monitor June 12, 2002 700+ words
...everything." A leadership crisis The faithful are looking to church leaders for other actions that show they understand this is a leadership...officials. Jim Post, a college professor in Boston, thinks US church leaders got what they wanted from the Rome meeting of bishops and...
- Sandinistas mend fences with Catholic leaders.(World)
- Magazine article from: Catholic New Times Jeffrey, Paul September 21, 2003 700+ words
...rule, the relationship between the Sandinistas and several church leaders, especially Obando y Bravo, was marked by mutual accusations...and party officials recognize that lingering tensions with church leaders continue to plague the campaign. The public reconciliation...
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- Newspaper article from: The Boston Globe James L. Franklin, Globe Staff October 22, 1987 700+ words
Church leaders in the state last night...transmission of AIDS," the church leaders said. The denominational...Orthodox and Roman Catholic leaders declared in a joint...whom they love," the church leaders said. There were differences...