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Politics : Actual left/right wing discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DMaA who wrote (840)	9/14/2006 4:26:26 PM
From: one_less	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10087

Kiss it!!! All better now. cdn.channel.aol.com

To: DMaA who wrote (840)	9/15/2006 6:02:15 PM
From: one_less	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10087

Abuse victims to address priests PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Cardinal Justin Rigali is calling together hundreds of priests in the Philadelphia Archdiocese to hear from two people who were sexually abused by Roman Catholic clerics. The priests will meet at a seminary, where they'll be addressed by a man and a woman who were abused by priests as children, and from a parent of two other victims. Such gatherings are unusual, though not unheard of, since the Catholic sex abuse crisis erupted in 2002. Abuse victims addressed a meeting of the nation's bishops that year. A Philadelphia grand jury investigation last year identified 63 archdiocesan priests as abusers since the 1950s. Seventeen of them have been defrocked and others have been relieved of pastoral duties. The latest meeting comes a year after the grand jury issued its scathing report, which concluded that archdiocesan leaders covered up the abuse. Prosecutors bitterly concluded they could not file criminal charges because of Pennsylvania's statute of limitations on such crimes. Lawyers for the archdiocese reacted with equally strong words, calling the panel "a sword to attack the church and build support for insidious pre-judgments." The meeting Friday is being organized by a victim's advocate the archdiocese hired this year. "For the last 10 months or more, the church has been silent, very much at my suggestion, because we have to look inward," advocate Mary Achilles said Wednesday. "We have to straighten up our own house." She added: "This event on Friday is just a step. It will not solve the problem. Its goal is simply for those who operate in the church currently to witness the pain and suffering of victims." Some of those sexually abused by priests questioned the value of Friday's forum, which will be streamed live online but is not open to the public. "It will look like an effort ... to make changes to improve the issues around sex abuse in the church," said Diane Freedman Drinker, 46, one of dozens of victims who testified before the grand jury. "But the fact is, in the halls of Harrisburg they are lobbying against the laws that are necessary to protect children." Abuse victims want the church to lobby for some legal reforms proposed by the grand jury, such as the creation of a one-year window in which victims could sue. The archdiocese opposes the one-year window, saying old claims would be difficult to defend and would financially ruin the church, social service agencies and others.