You can’t “unring a bell”, but you can set the record straight about EVIL FALSE ACCUSATIONS!

From The Catholic League with my emphases.  Fellow Catholic bloggers might pick this up too.  False accusations are deeply evil and they ruin lives.

BIGOTRY EXPLAINS FALSE ACCUSATIONS

July 18, 2012

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:

False accusations against priests are hardly uncommon these days, but when anti-Catholicism accounts for lies against lay Catholics, the problem only worsens. Consider the latest news concerning Tim Udinski.

After Udinski was fired as the lacrosse coach at Lansdale Catholic High School last year, he made several accusations over a seven-month period claiming that the football coach and the new lacrosse coach were sexually abusing students. He also maintained that the principal of the suburban Philadelphia school, Tim Quinn, knew about the offenses.

After detectives spent 184 hours on this case, interviewing 97 people (at a cost of more than $8250), they determined that the charges were bogus. Standing by itself, this wouldn’t be big news, but what makes it so disturbing is Udinski’s motive: he has admitted that he fabricated the whole story, just so he could “get the Church.”

Landsdale Catholic High is in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, and it was to the archdiocese that Udinski sent his anonymous e-mails. Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman acknowledged that Udinski sought to exploit the high profile that the sexual abuse of minors has been given. Indeed, she questioned, “How do you undo that? How do you unring the bell?”

Here’s the clincher. When asked why he lied, Udinski said, “I just wanted to get back at the church, Tim Quinn, and I was just generally mad.” (My italics.)

Over the past three years, 173 false accusations have been made against Catholic priests nationwide. Also, on July 6, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput stated that four of the six priests who were recently investigated were found suitable for ministry. Isn’t it time we learned the names of those who make false charges? And how do we “unring the bell” for all those priests—and lay persons—whose reputations have been smeared by merchants of bigotry and greed?

Contact our director of communications about Donohue’s remarks:

Jeff Field
Phone: 212-371-3191
E-mail: cl@catholicleague.org

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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11 Comments

  1. fvhale says:

    Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you (falsely) because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Mt 5,11-12).

    It is part of the life on one who is faithful, from Joseph in Egypt, to Naboth killed for his vineyard, to the prophets, to Jesus, to Stephen, and many, many others. Driven by envy, greed, frustrated lust or jealousy, or a desire to stamp out those who will not “go along” with sin, from brothers, biological or religious, from outside the Church and from inside. It continues today, in many places around the world, whether priests falsely accused and arrested or beaten in Asia, or in the west often with a financial motive from a legal settlement. The false accusers, of course, have no concern at all for the suffering of the accused who must bear the cross, sometimes to martyrdom. Even if those who make the false accusations are identified, and punished, the damage is done to the victim.

    But our Lord sees all our suffering, and rewards us accordingly.

    This problem will never be solved until the “accuser of our brothers is cast out” (Rev 12,10).

    Let us pray.

  2. Titus says:

    “I just wanted to get back at the church, Tim Quinn, and I was just generally mad.”

    Well, that sounds like an admission of malice. Cue the libel suit.

  3. rodin says:

    “Isn’t it time we learned the names of those who make false charges?”

    It is long past time when that information should be bruited about. If these people are disturbed then one way to make sure they get the treatment they need is to make known their illnesses. If they are merely anti-Catholic there is no reason they should be allowed to hide their deplorable behaviour while their victims are destroyed.

  4. AnAmericanMother says:

    An unemployed lacrosse coach is almost certainly judgment-proof.
    The only reason to sue would be “pour encouragement les autres” – in this case perhaps worthwhile.
    Prosecution for false report of a crime might be more effective.

  5. frjim4321 says:

    According to who have there been 173 false accusations in the past three years?

  6. mjtefft says:

    It would probably be more accurate to say ‘173 accusations have been found to be false’ – surely there are some whose veracity is still unknown.

  7. frjim4321 says:

    Yes but there is no source and Donohue is hardly credible.

  8. pmullane says:

    “Donohue is hardly credible.”

    How so?

  9. PA mom says:

    Is there no religious order who might offer to accept these priests?

  10. Supertradmum says:

    I know of two priests who were accused and were totally innocent. However, even though the allegations were proved to be false, parishes did not want them to be their pastors. The innocent suffer with those who are evil. One died an early death of an illness, but he was worn down by the whole experience. I do not know what happened to the other. The last I heard was that he was not in a parish.

  11. jkm210 says:

    Please pray also for a priest I know who came forward, without an accusation being made, and admitted that he molested a child many years before he even became a priest. He was rightly removed from active ministry nearly six years ago, but what is a priest like that supposed to do afterwards? Get a job? Join a parish? This man has been up-front about his background and it gets him in trouble, but if he were to try to cover it up, that would surely get him in trouble too.

    It is awful that for priests who are wrongly accused, and for those who are justly accused but truly repent, there is really nothing that can be done. We need to pray for these men, and try to do better as a church in helping them.

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