When Cardinal Levada met with journalists in the Time building in New York this past Friday and was reported to have said that the church is considering making it easier for survivors of priest abuse to come forward, there was the feeling that possibly the Catholic Church was about to change.
Now, Reuters is reporting that Levada, Benedict’s successor as chief official in charge of dealing with priests who abuse, is saying he didn’t say that change in church law was imminent. He went further to say that he didn’t believe bishops had aided and abetted molesting priests. This is the same Levada who as archbishop of San Francisco, had the chairman of a panel formed to help the archdiocese review abuse claims resign in protest, accusing church leaders of “deception” for blocking the panel’s findings. Now, he’s defending bishops like Cardinal Law who resigned in disgrace after church documents revealed the extent of his involvement in the church sex abuse coverup.
This is a very disturbing development in light of the Pope’s comments and actions this week. The Pope himself had chastised the American bishops when he told them that the abuse scandal had not been handled well. Now, the Pope has one of his top lieutenants in Levada, siding with bishops who have been exposed as hiding and covering up for abusive priests.
Fr. Tom Doyle, a Dominican priest and canon law expert, reacted to Levada’s comments by stating that he personally remembers briefing then Auxiliary Bishop Levada in 1985 about the priest abuse crisis. Doyle states that Levada is either lying or has such a restrictively narrow view of reality that allows him to deny the bishops’ knowlege of the extent of the priest abuse crisis. Doyle, an expert in the abuse crisis, has reviewed thousands of documents dating back to the 1940’s that show the bishops knew about abusive priests and hid them or transferred them to other parishes where they were free to abuse again. Doyle sees Levada’s comments as more of the “pass the buck” mentality that Benedict condemned and has permeated the bishops’ actions in mishandling the abuse issue.
The real problem is the lack of accountability of the US bishops, none of whom have been successfully charged criminally for their actions in this regard. The Pope must continue to hold the bishops accountable if he is going to have any credibility with survivors of sexual abuse as well as the Catholic faithful who look to him for straight talk and pastoral leadership.

Azalea neighborhood homeowners and business owners in St. Petersburg have spent years paying on mortgages hoping to see increases in value in their properties. Now their corporate neighbor Raytheon has damaged property values in the neighborhood by failing to properly clean up toxic chemicals that have leached into the ground water and formed a toxic plume under azalea park and under azalea homes and businesses. Raytheon apparently made the decision that the company could save money by not cleaning up its mess and hoping its dangerous chemicals just go away on their own. Raytheon called its clean up plan “natural attenuation” In other words, dump it on your neighbors.
The contamination of the neighborhood ground water will make it more difficult to sell homes in the area and will reduce property values, perhaps substantially. My expert real estate appraiser who has been surveying the area today advises me that banks may be unwilling or hesitant to give mortgage loans on property that may be contaminated with toxic chemicals. Furthermore, even properties that are not contaminated will be devalued by being in an area with the stigma of toxic pollution. The lower priced sales of the contaminated properties in the area will also reduce the amount that banks will lend on nearby non-contaminated properties thus reducing the market value of those properties. Azalea property owners do have a right to bring individual or class action lawsuits recover for loss of property value as well as for injury to their health if that can be connected to the chemical exposure. The law is on the property owners side in the dispute. Raytheon should pay.

I think most people involved in this movement-whether they be survivors, doctors, advocates, lawyers, priests, or bishops don’t know where Pope Benedict’s actions this week will lead. On the one hand, his words and actions could be a slick PR maneuver designed to put this crisis to bed without doing anything for survivors. On the other hand, Benedict may have said and done some significant first things for survivors and their advocates. If the former is the case, let it be known that those of us advocating on behalf of these courageous survivors will not give up and will not be silenced. We will continue to fight for justice in the courts. If the former, Benedict has surely underestimated our resolve and determination.
However, if the latter is the case we’re in unchartered waters. Could it be that Benedict has given the US bishops a new mandate to deal with survivors in a truly just and pastoral fashion? In his Washington speech to the US bishops he seemed to indicate that he now rejects the old “duck and cover” routine of the bishops. The “blame the media” campaign waged for so long by the US bishops seems to have run its course. Even William Cardinal Levada, Benedict’s replacement as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and chief overseer of priest molesters, said this week that church officials were considering changing church law as to how abuse cases are handled. Levada did not give specifics but it is thought that he may consider opening up the canonical statute of limitations for abuse cases. If you consider how slowly church law changes (once in the last century), this could be a remarkable development.
We don’t know how or if the US bishops will respond to the Pope’s actions or his statments. We’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, those of us working on behalf of survivors will press on. We’ll continue to demand access to the secret files, we’ll continue to expose priest perpetrators and fight for survivors’ rights. In the end, it’s not just the only thing to do, it’s the right thing to do.

The Pope has conceded and met with 5 victims of Catholic priest sex abuse. Attorney Robert Bennett, a member of the National Review Board admitted on Chris Matthews’ Hardball that the bishops had screwed up and didn’t handle the crisis. According to him, they handled the priest abuse crisis as if they were risk managers for an insurance company rather than as pastors of souls! This is a step in the right direction. We need to hold their feet to the fire and force them to move from words to actions. This may be an opportunity for real healing. However, the old axiom still applies, “Verify, verify, verify!”

Safely esconced on his Alitalia jet bound for the United States, Pope Benedict XVI told reporters of his shame concerning the priest abuse. In discussing the abuse, the pontiff feigned disbelief over how such a tragedy could have occurred in his church.
Of course, Benedict, in making his brief remarks, hoped to placate the thousands of abuse victims and their advocates. He’d throw them a token apology or explanation and be done with the whole business. But, when lives have been destroyed action is required not mere words. Yet this pope, like his predecessor, is unwilling to act. Benedict appears to be above it all as if he’s flying over a Hurricane Katrina surveying the damage. In reality, Benedict was Pope John Paul’s chief lieutenant and had inside knowlege of what was transpiring with Boston and Cardinal Law. He knew about Cardinal Mahony and his shenanigans. It’ll be hard for him to stay “above it all” with his kind of knowlege.

The three chemicals found to be in a plume running underground in the Azalea neighborhood of St. Petersburg are toxic and may pose serious health risks to those exposed to the toxins.
Vinyl chloride, 1,4-dioxane, and TCE (Trichloroethylene) are all considered hazardous to human health. Under certain circumstances, exposure to such chemicals can be fatal.

Raytheon’s St. Petersburg plant, located at 1501 72nd St. North, inherited the toxic chemical problem from the plant’s former owner E Systems. E Systems has said that it notified local residents of the problem in 1999 but according to a report released this week, the hazard has spread into the Azalea neighborhood, a half mile from the Raytheon plant.
Both Raytheon and the DEP have said that there is no cause for alarm since the groundwater is not used for drinking. The residents in the Azalea neighborhood obtain their drinking water from the city of St. Petersburg.
Yet, many Azalea residents have their own private irrigation wells which may be a source of exposure according to University of South Florida professor Jeffrey Cunningham who specializes in soil and ground water contamination cleanup. Cunningham told WFLA that,
“People who have their own irrigation well who are pulling up water to water their lawns – that’s when there becomes a health risk because there’s a route by which people might become exposed by those hazardous chemicals in the groundwater.”
One of the wells tested in the neighborhood showed samples of dioxane at 30 times the level that is considered safe. According to Professor Cunningham, the fact that Raytheon’s wells yielded high levels of the three toxins shows there may be a health hazard.
“If that plume is there, it certainly appears to me there’s a significant hazard,” Cunningham stated.

Class Action Lawsuit Information Website
Raytheon Toxic Waste Plume Class Action Water Pollution And Contamination Lawsuit St Petersburg Florida Toxic Waste Lawyer Chemical Attorney Irrigation Well

Jason Berry, the renowned Catholic journalist who wrote a groundbreaking investigative report on a priest abuser in New Orleans in 1985, hoped that his findings would lead to reform in the Catholic Church. He has made his book Vows of Silence into a movie. The DVD is now available. It chronicles the history of one of Pope John Paul II’s favorite priest, Fr. Marcial Maciel, the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, a religious order for clergy, and Regnum Christi, a religious movement for both clergy and laypeople. Maciel was a prolific fundraiser who had for years been accused of sexual abuse. The film documents the church’s coverup as well as the priest’s predatory trail of seeking out and abusing young men aspiring to the priesthood. While John Paul refused to investigate the allegations, then Cardinal Ratzinger took up the investigation. Unfortunately, he didn’t follow through, citing Maciel’s age.
Berry interviewed former members of the order and used the Maciel saga as a metaphor for the larger sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. Berry rightly points out that the real culprit in the priest sex abuse crisis are the bishops who are not held accountable for their refusal to act against priests who abuse children.
You can purchase the documentary by visiting this website: http://www.vowsofsilencefilm.com/

The FDA is now estimating that heparin deaths in the United States has climbed to 62. The majority of these deaths have been reported in the last 3-4 months. The drug agency defined suspicious deaths as those involving one or more allergic reactions or a drop in blood pressure. Since Baxter International recalled its heparin in late February, there have been no reported deaths.
The contaminant linked to the deaths, oversulfated chondroitin sulfate, mimics heparin and is cheaper to produce. This has led some to speculate that the contaminant was intentionally added to the heparin to cut manufacturing costs. However, the FDA nor the Chinese government have made any definitive ruling. Interestingly, other than counterfeiters and the possibility of an accident, no other explanations for the contaminant have been offered.
Heparin Side Effects Lawyer

Pope Benedict XVI will arrive in the United States next week to visit the Catholic faithful. He’s already announced that he won’t speak about the priest sex abuse crisis. Yet, the facts of the sex abuse scandal can not be ignored. Just this week, an Indiana appeals court has allowed a lawsuit filed against the Archdiocese of Indianapolis to proceed in spite of the fact that the sex abuse occurred more than 20 years ago. The judge ruled in favor of the abuse victim in a 2 page decision.
In a case I’ve filed on behalf of a victim in Orlando, the judge has ruled that the Diocese of Gary must turn over the internal church files concerning Fr. Richard Emerson, the priest abuser in question. The documents include letters from then Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) to the Bishop of Gary about this perp priest. Ratzinger was in charge of the laicization of abusive priests prior to becoming pope.
In other abuse news, sexual abuse lawsuits have been settled in the last week against the Archdiocese of Denver. In the past month, I settled a case against the Diocese of St. Augustine in which my client was abused more than 50 years ago. We filed suit and were prepared to take the Diocese to trial if necessary.
So, Benedict is coming to the United States. If he wants to pretend the abuse crisis is over, we can’t change his thinking. But, the reality speaks volumes. Victims are coming forward. They are taking their lives back by speaking out and seeking justice. They’re becoming survivors rather than victims. It’s a shame Benedict can’t celebrate that good news.

After a News Channel 8 and Tampa Tribune report revealed groundwater contamination in the Azalea neighborhood of St. Petersburg. Over 100 neighborhood residents gathered to discuss their concerns about the contamination linked to the large defense plant Raytheon. The residents wanted to know whether the groundwater contamination would affect their health or their property values.
The news investigation found a groundwater plume containing vinyl chloride, TCE and dioxane. According to the St. Petersburg Times, neither Raytheon or the Florida Department of Environmental Protection notified Azalea homeowners about the potential problem. Raytheon has been under a consent order since 1995 to investigation the extent of the problem.