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Veteran opponent of Church corruption Stephen Brady is discussing with Church Militant how to remedy the failure of complicit or complacent law enforcement to prosecute corrupt clergy.
With the hierarchy doubling down on allowing bishops to police themselves on sex abuse, all eyes are turning to local law enforcement to clean up the Church. Prior to being a guest on Monday's Download, Brady commented on how law enforcement is sometimes part of the problem:
I ran into a situation in Joliet twenty-some years ago in the Joliet diocese in Illinois where the attorney general up there in a specific area was turning abuse cases back over to the bishop, not prosecuting and letting them deal with it. I also found that in the Bp. [Daniel] Ryan case — some law enforcement who had known what was going on and still did nothing.
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Brady says he'll believe law enforcement is doing their job only when he sees them putting corrupt clergy behind bars.
"It's yet to be proven they're completely trustworthy because we're not seeing the prosecution we need to see," said Brady.
Church Militant launched Action Arm to link up whistleblowers with former law enforcement who can develop each case involving Church corruption before delivering it over to local law enforcement for prosecution.
Brady explained that former law enforcement officials tapped for Action Arm are not risking their job so they can follow up with current lawmen to urge them to prosecute cases.
They can also blow the whistle on complicit lawmen when they fail to act on prosecutable evidence:
You need the law enforcement part in there because of the fact you have no way to find out as a layperson by yourself if they're doing their job unless you have some law enforcement — both federal, state and local — involved so they can make sure the proper procedures are followed and things aren't covered up. It's going to take their expertise and experience to assure that.
Watch the panel discuss outing complicit clergy with Stephen Brady on The Download—Exposing Church Corruption.