Standing up for justice: Rev. James J. Greenfield of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales

Rev. James J. Greenfield, Provincial of the Wilmington-Philadelphia Province of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, is publicly coming to the defense of his fellow priest, Fr. Charles Engelhardt, one of three men recently convicted in the high-profile Philadelphia clergy abuse trials.

"We cannot just roll over in the face of being falsely accused," Fr. Greenfield says. "That is wrong. We need to stand up for what's right."

Greenfield made his remarks in the latest blog post of journalist Ralph Cipriano, who has bravely exposed the massive fraud and corruption in the prosecution of Catholic clergy in Philadelphia.

Defending the innocent

Historically, as we have reported before, religious superiors have rarely, if ever, publicly voiced support for falsely accused priests. As Catholic scholar Dr. Jeff Mirus once wrote, "The attitude of many bishops seems to have changed from an assumption of innocence to a desire to distance oneself as quickly as possible from anyone who is accused."

So Greenfield's strong words of support are a welcome departure from the usual silence from Church officials in high-profile cases where the guilt of the accused is in grave doubt.

Engelhardt, along with former teacher Bernard Shero, was found guilty back in January of sadistic abuse based entirely on the claims of Dan Gallagher, an admitted drug addict with a lengthy arrest record. Gallagher wildly claimed that he was brutally abused by Engelhardt, Shero, and former priest Edward Avery (all of whom barely knew each other) in the 1998-1999 school year when he was a 10-year-old Philadelphia altar boy.

However, since the end of the trial, a wealth of new evidence (here, here, and here, for example) has been uncovered, which casts grave doubt on the guilt of Engelhardt and the two others.

A family tries to stay strong

Fr. Charles Engelhardt

Family members describe "Uncle Charlie" as "the hero" of their family, having presided over every family communion, confirmation, and graduation, as well as a half dozen weddings.

A niece adds, "He was central to our family. Every one of us went to college and graduated because that's what he did."

The entire episode has taken a terrible toll on some family members. Engelhardt's 88-year-old mother used to visit her son in jail every Tuesday until a couple months ago when she fell as she was leaving the prison. She later fell again at home, broke her hip, and she is now confined to bed. Family members also believe the whole ordeal has caused the onset of dementia in the mother, who also suffers from Parkinson's disease.

"We think the only thing that keeps her living is she's holding out for the day he's found innocent," another family member believes.

The moment of truth approaches

The family prays that "the day he's found innocent" is Wednesday (June 12). This is the day that Fr. Engelhardt is scheduled to stand in front of Judge Ellen Ceisler and request that his verdict be overturned.

It will be interesting to see if accuser Dan Gallagher or his civil lawyer appears at the sentencing. Yet we know what Gallagher has been up to in the past few months. While allegedly attending drug rehab in Florida, Gallagher has taken the time to enjoy the sunny beaches of Puerto Rico.

Gallagher: Fun in the sun

Once again, kudos goes to Ralph Cipriano for his bravery and doggedness in following this story. His latest entry is a must-read.

Church cranks find a new forum: "Catholic Whistleblowers"
(l to r): Marci Hamilton, Fr. Thomas Doyle, Anne Barrett Doyle, Patrick Wall, and Robert Hoatson

In all of 2012, there were exactly six credible abuse allegations made against Catholic priests by current minors in all of 2012 (out of some 40,000 active priests), and the "fewest allegations and victims" ever were tabulated since statistics began to be compiled.

In fact, in a body of 77 million people, contemporaneous accusations of abuse against Catholic clergy in the United States are extremely rare, recently averaging 8 allegations merely deemed "credible" each year.

Yet a new group being trumpeted by the New York Times, "Catholic Whistleblowers," is trying to dupe the public into believing that abuse is somehow still rampant in the Church today.

Same old players with a different team name

Most notably, Catholic Whistleblowers is composed of tired Church bashers whose hatred for the Church has already been well documented before:

• Fr. Thomas Doyle: In addition to a troublesome background, Doyle has essentially admitted that he is not really even Catholic by declaring that he has "nothing to do with the Catholic Church," he has "nothing to do with the clerical life," he is "not associated with the Church in any way," and his beliefs are "about as far away from the Vatican as you can get";
• Marci Hamilton: Hamilton's venom against the Catholic Church cannot be overstated, and one of the leading constitutional scholars in the country once said that her work contained "no substance of scholarship" and exhibited "a reckless disregard for truth";
• Anne Barrett Doyle: Doyle is the director of BishopAccountability.org, an anti-Catholic hate group that masquerades as a library with documents pertaining to Catholic sex abuse;
• Patrick Wall: Wall is an ex-priest who has been promoted as a "canon lawyer," but he isn't. His work in the field of canon law has also been discredited; and
• Robert Hoatson: Hoatson is another angry ex-priest who never met a microphone he didn't love. He recently claimed just weeks ago that he is "dealing at the present moment with 'repressed memory' of abuse that is just coming to mind again in my Catholic grammar school."

In other words, Catholic Whistleblowers is composed of the same-old, tired Church cranks looking to keep the depleted issue of Catholic sex abuse alive in the media.

Goodstein's ongoing obsession

Cheerleader for Church cranks:
The NYT's Laurie Goodstein

Catholic Whistleblowers has accomplished absolutely nothing except put up a weak-looking web site and alert the media about itself. Yet the Times' Laurie Goodstein has treated the formation of this band of old riff-raff as it were some major achievement.

Goodstein is billed as the "National Religion Correspondent" for the New York Times, yet her focus is almost solely aimed at the Catholic Church. Of the 20 articles she has authored or co-authored so far in 2013 for the Times, 18 of them (or 90%) have spotlighted the Catholic Church, and almost all of them portraying it in a negative light.

Goodstein's animus against the Catholic Church has already been well documented, and her glowing profile of this tiny enterprise only adds more to show that the New York Times is the most anti-Catholic newspaper in the country.

"A reckless disregard for truth": SNAP lawyer Marci Hamilton from Yeshiva University

A recent public appearance in Philadelphia by lawyer Marci Hamilton, an advocate for the anti-Catholic group SNAP, underscores the brazen dishonesty of some individuals when talking about the issue of sex abuse and the Catholic Church.

Hamilton's public appearance was intended to promote proposed "window" legislation in Pennsylvania, which would abolish decades of established law and lift the statute of limitations for abuse claims for a set period – a so-called "window" – so that contingency lawyers can bring 50-, 60-year, or even older abuse claims in order to bankrupt the Catholic Church.

(Yet public schools, where rampant abuse and cover-ups are still occurring today, are notably exempt from this legislation.)

Indeed, in states where window statutes have already been enacted, such as California, Oregon and Delaware, they have directly led to dioceses being forced to file for bankruptcy.

And while answering questions from an audience member at her appearance, Hamilton rattled off a number of outright lies and half-truths that again reveal her complete disregard for truth and veracity.

Hamilton's smearing the dead

In discussing the issue of the proposed legislation, the audience member brought up the problem of false accusations and recalled the high-profile episode in 1993 involving Chicago's Joseph Cardinal Bernardin. Bernardin was falsely accused by a man named Steven Cook, who was a victim of the quack practice of hypnosis therapy and was duped into believing that he had been abused as a teen by the prelate.

Hamilton actually had the gall to respond:

"The survivor has pulled back on saying they're false."

In truth, after fully recanting his claim in March of 1994, Cook died of AIDS in September of 1995, almost two decades ago.

In addition, the pair had a remarkable episode of reconciliation in December of 1994, as Cardinal Bernardin and Cook stayed in regular contact with each other right up until Cook's final days. Cook even called Bernardin a few months before he died to wish the prelate well as he recovered from cancer surgery.

In other words, Hamilton flat-out lied to everyone in her audience by claiming the accuser had reversed his recantation.

Just making it up as she goes along

Also, in discussing the issue of window legislation, the audience member brought up the fact that there is debate over the constitutionality of such laws. Yet Hamilton brazenly interrupted the man's claim:

"I haven't seen a single scholar in opposition to me on window legislation on constitutionality."

In fact, window legislation that retroactively lifts the statute of limitations for criminal cases has been unequivocally ruled unconstitutional by no less an authority than the United States Supreme Court.

And as far as the constitutionality of window statutes in civil cases, there has indeed been very intense debate, as laws differ from state to state.

For example, in Wisconsin, another state where Hamilton has pushed for such legislation to be passed, it was reported:

"[L]awyers representing state and national civil justice organizations called the window's constitutionality into question during the hearing. When the 2003 legislation extending the statute of limitations was under consideration, a similar window to allow previously barred suits was proposed. Then-Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager had advised legislators that the proposal was constitutionally flawed."

In other words, Hamilton's claim that she has never been challenged on the constitutionality of window statues is completely bogus.

(One law firm has published a balanced state-by-state analysis of proposed window legislation. In some states, the analysts found the proposed legislation to be constitutional. In others, definitely not. In Pennsylvania, the firm found both constitutional and unconstitutional foundations in the state's proposed legislation. They concluded, "[I]t is unclear whether such window legislation will pass constitutional muster.")

Marci's retirement strategy

The audience member also asked Hamilton if she personally stands to gain financially if window legislation is passed in Pennsylvania.

The question clearly took Hamilton by surprise, and she initially tried to dodge the question by providing a "history" of her stake in the issue. (She claimed she had no interest in becoming a trial lawyer until the 2011 Philadelphia grand jury report, but that report has since been thoroughly discredited, which makes her reasoning moot.)

But as she was unable to weave herself out of answering the question, she finally admitted that "yes," she does stand to benefit monetarily if such window legislation is successful. In the end, she hopes to "move to Puerto Rico and write novels." (We're not kidding. Watch the video).

The time is long overdue for the media to recognize Marci Hamilton as the dishonest bigot that this woman actually is.

SNAP's founder and president Barbara Blaine

According to a tip received by TheMediaReport.com, Barbara Blaine, the founder and president of the anti-Catholic group SNAP, has admitted that she wrote a letter on behalf of a Louisiana psychologist, Dr. Steve Taylor, who was arrested and jailed on charges of possessing over 100 images of kiddie porn.

In 2009, when the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners was considering revoking the license of Dr. Taylor following his arrest for child pornography, Blaine wrote a letter to the board and explained that Taylor had founded a local chapter of SNAP and had done extensive work for the group. She then begged that the board "refrain from taking any action on this case until Dr. Taylor's guilt or innocence is determined in a court of law."

[EXCLUSIVE #1: Click to read Blaine's 2009 letter on behalf of kiddie porn doc Taylor]

Taylor later pleaded guilty to the kiddie porn charges and was sentenced to prison for his crimes.

While Bruce Nolan at the Times-Picayune (Louisiana) newspaper first reported that Blaine had sent a letter to the state board on behalf of Taylor, SNAP has steadfastly refused to publicly acknowledge its existence. However, thanks to a tip to this site, the letter and Blaine's subsequent defense of the letter are finally public.

According to our tip, Blaine made the admission about her letter on behalf of Taylor in a lengthy internal 2012 memo issued by her and National Director David Clohessy to concerned leaders of SNAP's local chapters across the country who were troubled by the fact their leader had written a letter in support of a man arrested for a kiddie porn crime. In the memo, Blaine defended her decision to write the letter and her refusal to publicly acknowledge writing it.

[EXCLUSIVE #2: Click to read SNAP's 2012 memo defending Blaine's decision to write her letter]

Barbara Blaine's iron fist

A number of regional leaders at SNAP were apparently angry that the leader of a sex abuse victims group had written a letter on behalf of a person who had been arrested with sexually explicit pictures of children on his computer.

Some SNAP leaders had begun to ask that Blaine "apologize" or "explain" her decision to write the letter, with some people actually demanding that she resign over it.

And shockingly, according to our tip, after a SNAP leader wrote a measured and heartfelt email requesting that Blaine publicly apologize for writing her letter, Blaine promptly expelled the leader.

The rank hypocrisy

Busted for kiddie porn:
Dr. Steve Taylor

"Barbara was told the letter would remain private," the memo explains. "Obviously, for reasons we don't know, that didn't happen."

In other words, Blaine wrote a letter on behalf of a guy arrested with a large cache of kiddie porn expecting that no one would find out about it.

Yet ever since its inception, SNAP has repeatedly blasted Catholic officials for their alleged "secrecy" and "concealment" in their handling of cases decades ago involving alleged abuse by priests.

The hypocrisy could not be more clear: Secrecy for SNAP, but full transparency for the Catholic Church.

SNAP's cover-up – exposed

Astonishingly, Blaine's and Clohessy's memo lays out a plan to keep any knowledge of Blaine's shocking letter on behalf of Taylor out of the public realm.

Blaine and Clohessy issued a recommendation to SNAP chapter leaders and members about what they should do if they receive inquiries about Blaine's letter, and the pair's recommendation is simple and straightforward: Say nothing. Do nothing.

"As harsh as this may sound, we'd recommend that you not respond," the memo advises.

Again, SNAP's rank hypocrisy is blinding. Just days ago, SNAP's Clohessy published a blog post in which he upbraided Church officials for their alleged "increased silence" about decades-old claims and the frequency with which some dioceses respond with "no comment" in the media.

Yet Blaine and Clohessy are here advising their members to cover up SNAP's own letter to a government authority to go easy on a consumer of kiddie porn.

A call to SNAP for honesty and transparency

In truth, Blaine's letter simply asked that the Board of Medicine to hold off on the decision over Taylor's medical license until his criminal case had been decided. In her mind, an accused friend is innocent until proven guilty and should be entitled to a presumption of innocence with respect to his professional status.

However, if SNAP had ever discovered that a Catholic bishop had recently written a similar letter on behalf of an accused priest, its response would be explosive. And mainstream media outlets like the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and the Los Angeles Times would no doubt be running screaming headlines about a bishop "endangering the welfare of children" by "covering up" and "defending" the crimes of an abusive priest. Media calls for the bishop to resign would be deafening.

Barbara Blaine and David Clohessy should now publicly apologize for their secret, hypocritical acts. And if they are unwilling to conduct themselves by the same standards to which they hold others, then they should both resign.

[See also: *SPECIAL REPORT* SNAP Uncovered: Shocking Facts About the Media's Favorite Church-Bashing Group]

Afflicting the comfortable: The Wall St. Journal's Dorothy Rabinowitz (l) shatters complacent journalism.
Eighteen years in prison and counting: Fr. Gordon MacRae (r) (shown in 2011).

In a stunning article that bravely veers from the media's usual, tired coverage of the Catholic Church abuse story, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Dorothy Rabinowitz has taken up the case of Fr. Gordon J. MacRae, who has been serving a 33½-to-67 year sentence in a New Hampshire state prison since 1994 on abuse charges.

Rabinowitz's article in the Wall Street Journal reports that MacRae was wrongfully convicted in a grave miscarriage of justice.

Troubling details exposed

Former N.H. judge and "Occupy"
leader Arthur D. Brennan

In a nutshell, Fr. MacRae was convicted by a jury and imprisoned based on the claims of a single accuser named Thomas Grover, whom Rabinowitz aptly notes had "a considerable history of forgery, assault, theft and drug use."

In 1994, the then-27-years-old Grover claimed that Fr. MacRae sexually assaulted him over five consecutive weekly counseling sessions years earlier in 1983 when he was 15 years old. Asked why he would repeatedly return to a place where he had been brutally attacked the week before, Grover amazingly testified that he "had experienced 'out of body' episodes that had blocked his recollection" of previous abuse.

But these are not the only troubling aspects of MacRae's case. Among the others:

• there are multiple, independent attestations that Grover has said privately that he was never assaulted by MacRae, and he accused the priest in order to sue the Church for money;
• there are multiple, independent sources who say that they were coerced by law enforcement into falsely implicating MacRae of abuse;
• a signed statement from a courtroom witness claimed that a therapist hired by Grover's contingency lawyer used hand signals from the back of the courtroom during the trial in order to coach Grover on the witness stand; and
• a veteran FBI agent conducted a three-year investigation and concluded, "I discovered no evidence of MacRae having committed the crimes charged, or any other crimes."

The New Hampshire judge who sentenced MacRae, Arthur D. Brennan, is now retired, but he was recently in the news for getting arrested in Washington D.C. as part of the "Occupy" movement.

Closer to justice?

Could Fr. MacRae finally be released from prison in the near future? It seems we may know the answer soon. According to Rabinowitz:

"A New Hampshire superior court will shortly deliver its decision on a habeas corpus petition seeking Father MacRae's immediate release on grounds of newly discovered evidence. The petition was submitted by Robert Rosenthal, an appellate attorney with long experience in cases of this kind. In the event that the petition is rejected, Father MacRae's attorneys say they will appeal.

"Those aware of the facts of this case find it hard to imagine that any court today would ignore the perversion of justice it represents."

Kudos to Ms. Rabinowitz for reporting the truth however unpopular the cause. Investigative journalism and digging for the truth take hard work. Few journalists are brave enough to publish stories such as this one, which challenges the mainstream media's conventional thinking that any accused priest is automatically presumed guilty.

Fr. MacRae's case is sponsored by the National Center for Reason and Justice. Stay tuned.

[See also: "Alarming New Evidence May Exonerate Imprisoned Priest" (Feb. 2012)]

Avoiding rumor and innuendo: The Chicago Tribune's Manya Brachear

When the Chicago Tribune's Manya Brachear reported the story of 31 Chicago-area grown men suing the Congregation of Christian Brothers religious order alleging abuse from decades past, it seemed to be no different from the thousands of other stories in the last few years that have been reported about alleged abuse long ago in the Catholic Church.

However, the Brachear's article included a passage that was a pleasant surprise:

"The Tribune is not publishing the names of brothers listed in the lawsuit because they have not been convicted of abuse at any of the three schools, and it is not known whether the order has substantiated the allegations against them."

For decades, Catholic priests have been singled out by the media as presumed guilty by any accusation, no matter how long ago, without so much as an arrest, indictment, criminal conviction, or even a Church finding that the claim might be "credible."

Even long-deceased priests whose accusations have been unsubstantiated – and are no longer around to defend themselves – have had their names broadcast and plastered across the media landscape as if they were convicted child molesters.

By contrast, the mainstream media has allowed any abuse claimant to make an accusation under the cloak of anonymity, compromising an accused priest's right to a fair and public trial.

Kudos to Brachear and the Tribune for considering basic fairness and breaking from this unjust practice.

We hope that more newspapers take the high road and follow suit.

The facts are the facts: The Catholic Church is the safest environment for children to be in today.

The newly released annual audit of abuse in the Catholic Church reports that only six credible abuse allegations were made against priests by current minors in all of 2012 (out of some 40,000 active priests) and that the "fewest allegations and victims" ever were tabulated since annual reports began to be compiled in 2004.

This is obviously very good news. Yet in years past while syndicated news outlets like the Associated Press and Reuters have fallen over themselves to dig out unflattering statistics from these annual reports, the mainstream media is notably silent about this very positive report.

A search of news coverage about the Church's new annual report found only three tiny secular newspapers reporting the news: the Press-Register (Alabama), the Rapid City Journal (South Dakota), and the Georgia Bulletin.

Not a single major secular newspaper (e.g., the New York Times, Boston Globe, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune etc.) reported on the study.

The statistics that the mainstream media refuses to report

Here are the facts about the Catholic Church abuse story you will not see reported in the mainstream media and which once again underscore the fact that the abuse story is no longer really "news" but a history lesson:

• 45% of all identified priests who were accused in 2012 were already long deceased (this is the second year in a row of this record high figure);
• 77% of all identified priests who were accused in 2012 are either already deceased, already removed from ministry, already laicized, or simply missing;
• 77% of all abuse accusations last year allege incidents from before 1985; and
• accusations against priests in 2012 were down 20% and were the lowest recorded numbers since annual audit reports began.

Indeed, current accusations against Catholic priests are extremely rare.

SNAP: Don't confuse me with the facts

Totally unglued:
SNAP's Judy Jones

Jones, who apparently lives her life trolling web sites and leaving nutty comments in comment boxes, left one of her more bizarre rants in recent memory on the site of Alabama's Press-Register.

Jones claimed that "this report from the bishops can not be trusted as accurate."

First of all, the annual audits and their corresponding reports do not exactly come "from the bishops." This year, for example, StoneBridge Business Partners, a private auditing firm, visited dioceses and gathered all of the relevant information, and it worked with the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), an independent organization based at Georgetown University, to prepare the report.

In other words, Jones' claim that the information in the reports is "from the bishops" is simply false.

Then, without a shred of supporting documentation, Jones claimed that "the sex abuse and cover up within the church hierarchy is still going on to this day," that "Cardinals and bishops are still covering up sex crimes against kids," and that "they are still not removing accused predator clergy."

And if that were not enough, she charged bishops with "protecting their image and the institution rather than protecting innocent kids."

In truth, when it comes to protecting one's own image rather than children, SNAP itself has been shown to do this very same thing. The group's National Director David Clohessy refused to call the police back in the early 1990s when he fully knew that his priest brother Kevin was sexually abusing innocent boys, an action by Clohessy which possibly jeopardized the safety of countless children. And just a couple years ago, SNAP founder Barbara Blaine actually wrote a passionate letter on behalf of a SNAP psychiatrist arrested with over 100 images of kiddie porn on his computer.

So much for protecting kids.

Indeed, it would appear that children are much safer in the arms of the Catholic Church than under the supervision of the leaders at SNAP.

[See also: "Five Fast Facts About the Catholic Church Abuse Scandals"]

Real journalism: The Los Angeles Daily News exposes an epidemic of child sex abuse in L.A. public schools

Just in the last 15 months, some 600 teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) have either been fired, have resigned, or have been administratively "housed" due to allegations of serious "inappropriate conduct," much of it involving sickening child sex abuse.

Barbara Jones at the Los Angeles Daily News newspaper exclusively reported this shocking revelation this past Sunday.

Your tax dollars funding child sex abuse

Jones conducted a series of interviews with current LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy in which the pair reviewed cases where teachers were just recently fired. Among the jaw-dropping allegations:

• an elementary school teacher molested seven students, boys and girls;
• a high school teacher forced boys and girls to role-play sex acts between "master and slave," and would act out scenes in which he'd put his head on students' chests;
• after a girl complained that a high school teacher had sexually harassed her, the district confiscated his computer and found 22 films and 42 images of pornography, along with inappropriate emails to students;
• a female teacher took along a female student on a visit to a Hollywood sex shop, where the instructor purchased sex "paraphernalia";
• a female middle school teacher engaged in a years-long "salacious and inappropriate sexual" relationship with a former female student;
• a male middle school teacher had girls write poems about their buttocks (he had complaints in his file dating back to 1997 which were ignored);
• a male high school teacher was admonished at six schools for acts such as "ordering [girls] to stand up in class to exhibit the size of their breasts and making them do jumping jacks in the classroom";
• after a male middle school teacher accidentally projected hard-core pornography to his class, the district confiscated his computer and found two X-rated videos and 636 pornographic images.

These eye-popping charges are on the heels of the news just two months ago that LAUSD paid out nearly $30 million to settle lawsuits stemming from alleged abuse at just one elementary school. A teacher at the school is alleged to have spoon-fed semen to his students as part of a "tasting game."

And just last week, an attorney claimed that he had proof that LAUSD knew about abuse at yet another elementary school before parents reported the abuse to police.

Mainstream media: Missing in action

Kudos again to Barbara Jones
of the Los Angeles Daily News

Not one media outlet outside of Los Angeles has reported on these incredibly disturbing revelations, and even the attention in L.A. itself is negligible. 600 public school teachers are out abusing innocent children today, and the Los Angeles Times has yet to even report on this story.

While the mainstream media continues to hyperventilate over alleged episodes of abuse many decades ago in the Catholic Church – often involving priests who have long since died – it continues to turn a blind eye to these massive cases happening today in our taxpayer-funded public schools.

The glaring double standard never ends.

Kudos once again to Barbara Jones. If the journalism world knows what it's doing, there should be a Pulitzer Prize heading her way for her groundbreaking work in protecting children in Los Angeles. But don't bank on it.

Kudos to Ralph Cipriano (r), who uncovered the wild tales of Philadelphia accuser
Dan Gallagher (aka 'Billy Doe') (l)

The claims of sex abuse made by Philadelphia accuser Dan Gallagher that led to the convictions of two Catholic priests and a school teacher are so wildly outlandish and inconsistent that even one of the most staunch critics of the Church, the National Catholic Reporter newspaper, is now acknowledging that the accuser's claims are "utterly different versions of reality."

Surprisingly, the Reporter has become the first national publication to reveal that the recent high-profile convictions in Philadelphia appear unjust and rooted in legal and ethical chicanery.

"Cunning deception by civil society"

The Reporter's shocking admission comes in a recent editorial that it published shortly after it ran a lengthy summary article about the Philadelphia trial narrative by veteran journalist Ralph Cipriano, who for the last year has doggedly investigated this disturbing story.

To recap: Philadelphia's Msgr. William J. Lynn, Fr. Charles Engelhardt, and former teacher Bernard Shero have all been criminally convicted in the past year for crimes related to claims of abuse by Gallagher. But as Cipriano has uncovered (and we suspected all along), there were serious legal, procedural, and ethical troubles with the charges against all of these men. (See our complete coverage.)

Indeed, this site's early analysis of the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office 2011 grand jury report, which led to the criminal charges against the clergymen, found the report to be rife with falsehoods, misinformation, and hyperbole. And since the end of the trial, Cipriano himself has documented at least 20 clear factual errors in the report that have yet to be corrected by the D.A.'s Office.

Naturally, the mainstream media been indifferent to this glaring injustice and has merely parroted the talking points of the Philadelphia D.A.

However, even the Reporter cannot help but admit that there are "serious questions raised about the legal proceedings" that led to the false guilty plea by former priest Edward Avery and the high-profile convictions of Lynn, Engelhardt, and Shero. The paper suggests that "cunning deception by civil society" lurked behind the unjust prosecutions of Catholic clergy in Philadelphia.

As the Reporter has long been an ardent critic of the Church hierarchy, the Reporter's editorial was groundbreaking in that it resisited its usual witch hunt mentality.

Philadelphia: Just the tip of the iceberg

National Catholic Reporter's
Dennis Coday

This site was the first to uncover a long and troubling collaboration between members of the Philadelphia D.A.'s Office and leaders of the anti-Catholic advocacy group SNAP (Part I and Part II of our Special Report have photos and video evidence), indicating that the two conspired to maliciously target Catholic clergy in Philadelphia.

Philadelphia Assistant D.A. Mariana Sorensen – whom many have identified as the "architect" of the attack against the Church for the past decade – is a woman whose profound animus against the Catholic Church has been thoroughly chronicled. While aligning herself with SNAP, Sorensen has publicly championed legislative efforts specifically designed to financially cripple the Catholic Church. She has also deliberately cast Catholic clergy in the most mean-spirited and sinister light in order to advance her bigoted efforts.

And according to Cipriano, Sorensen most recently engaged in a sordid "whisper campaign" to try to prevent the Reporter from publishing his article, an ill-fated and pathetic episode which only underscores her lack of respect for the truth and her venom against the Church. Once again, however, Sorensen's malicious efforts have gone completely unchallenged by a complicit press.

Then there is Sorensen's close collaborator, SNAP lawyer Marci Hamilton, who co-wrote the 2005 grand jury report with Sorensen. Hamilton's prejudiced attacks against the Catholic Church, which she parades as "scholarship," have been roundly discredited as "disorganized," "riddled with errors," and "dreadful." So it was no surprise that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia issued a 73-page shredding of the pair's 2005 report and categorized it as "reckless rhetoric" and "irresponsible speculation," while rebutting its most inflammatory claims as "categorically false."

In addition, in recent years SNAP has feted members of the Philly D.A.'s Office at SNAP's annual conferences.

In its editorial, the Reporter copmpletely ignores these seedy alliances and the obvious agenda of the participants in Philadelphia. It claims the folks shedding light on these truths are "fantasists." But while the Reporter engages in playground name-calling, this site has dealt with the facts. So you be the judge.

Two cases built on sand

Since the dust has settled on the cases in Philadelphia, it is now clear that the Philly D.A.'s Office tossed aside all justice in its zeal to prosecute Catholic clergy. It is hard to imagine any clear-thinking Philly D.A. building cases on the two principle accusers here: Gallagher and Mark Bukowski.

Bukowski is the accuser of Fr. James J. Brennan, whom a jury voted to acquit 11-1 in a criminal trial last year. This site was the first to publicly broadcast Bukowski's lengthy criminal record, which included shocking crimes of fraud and filing false police reports that seriously undermined the guy's credibility.

We also relayed the extensive criminal background of triple-a