Church Investigations Explode

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The dam holding back the silence is breaking, as state investigations into the cover-up by bishops of homosexual priest predation is beginning to expand.

Six states have now launched official investigations demanding that secret archives in each diocese be opened and the records examined. The dam of secrecy will completely break when the Department of Justice (DOJ) launches a federal grand jury investigation into the nearly 200 dioceses in the entire United States.

As more states begin their independent investigations, patterns and correlations involving clerical sex abuse will begin to emerge. This is because troubled priests were often moved from diocese to diocese, sullying more than one bishop, who covered for them. Individual states may urge the federal government to launch a national investigation simply because this would readily provide all the pieces to the puzzle of which priest came from where and what did each bishop know.

When these dioceses are located in other states, then the institutional cover-up of human rights violations will have crossed state lines triggering what's known as a RICO investigation. These are federal laws involving systemic corruption by a single institution occurring in more than one state.

When state after state begins to investigate sexual abuse, which is also categorized as human rights violations, it will fall under an executive order signed Dec. 21 of last year by President Donald Trump titled Executive Order Blocking the Property of Persons Involved in Serious Human Rights Abuse or Corruption.

Like RICO, it's prosecuted by the DOJ. This order pertains to any institution located "in whole or in substantial part, outside the United States" that is found to be involved in "serious human rights abuse." The Catholic Church fits this description as does cover-up of widespread sexual abuse. This order gives the federal government the ability to confiscate from the institution "all property and interests in property that are in the United States."

Between RICO violations and the violation of Trump's executive order the Catholic Church would have far more to lose than the roughly $4 billion it has already paid out to sex abuse victims and lawyers.

Watch the panel discuss the necessity of uncovering the cover-up in The Download—Church Investigations Explode.

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