Church silent about where it houses credibly accused clerics

[SecularMotion]

Hidden priests, secret pasts: Church silent about where it houses credibly accused clerics

Norberto Nierras says he saw the man with the shock of white hair all the time along Home Avenue, a residential block that teems with children from the Catholic elementary and high schools a few hundred yards away.

The man, Nierras said, came and went as he pleased, strolling the Rutherford neighborhood or sitting on a bench outside the four-story building he called home: the St. John Vianney Residence for Retired Priests.

What Nierras didn’t know is that the man, the Rev. Msgr. Peter Cheplic, had been accused of drugging and molesting four teenage boys in the 1970s and 1980s. Or that the Archdiocese of Newark found the claims credible enough to remove him from ministry in 2006.

Cheplic, who has denied the allegations, is one of at least seven alleged sexual predators quietly placed in the Rutherford retirement home in the past 15 years, The Star-Ledger found. Some lived there a short time. Others have stayed for years. Neighbors said they were never informed of the men’s presence until told by a reporter.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/11/the_predator_priests_next_door_church_silent_about_where_it_houses_credibly_accused_clerics.html

[cbayer]

1. The lack of criminal prosecution is what is most disturbing here.

Although he and others have sanctions and restrictions placed on him by the church, the state has none.

I question whether the statute of limitations makes any sense at all in cases of child sexual abuse.

[gopiscrap]

4. yup and the secrecy that's allowed

[rug]

2. This points to the dilemma.

Some bishops move immediately to laicize credibly accused clergy members, or kick them out of the priesthood altogether, Reese said.

But that response, too, has drawn little consensus because of the obvious danger: potential predators released into communities, typically with no supervision at all.

What do you do with sex offenders who are off parole or probation and are not subject to registration because of the age of the offense. Many of the people in this article were never even arrested.

[gopiscrap]

3. figures once again the church is a huge institution and can bully it's way past problems

[skepticscott]

5. And when so many people

continue to defend the church's actions and to support the continuing cover-up and enabling of child rape financially.

[gopiscrap]

7. yup

[trotsky]

6. Disgusting, and it's just plain pathetic that there are those...

who continue to attack those of us who are appalled by this behavior, instead of faulting their church.

[gopiscrap]

8. I agree