Posted December 7, 2010 Book: Double Standard: Abuse Scandals and the Attack on the Catholic Church Author: David F. Pierre, Jr. Mattapoisett, Massachusetts. 2010. Pp. 160 An Excerpt from the Jacket: Yes, Catholic priests terribly abused minors, and bishops failed to stop the unspeakable harm. That’s an undeniable truth. However, major media outlets are unfairly attacking the Catholic Church, and this compelling book has the shocking evidence to prove it. An Excerpt from the Book: Attorney Jeff Anderson “We got a new law passed in California that opens up the statute of limitations for all victims of sexual abuse. It’s something we’ve been trying to do in several states for years. And I’m not waiting for it to click in. I’m suing the [Catholic Church] everywhere: in Sacramento, in Santa Clara, in Santa Rosa, in San Francisco, in Oakland, in L.A., and everyplace else: Attorney Jeff Anderson, April 2003 interview. Meet Minneapolis attorney Jeff Anderson. No single individual has gone after the Catholic Church more than Anderson has. It’s estimated that he’s earned hundreds of millions of dollars suing the Catholic Church. . . .Here is an example of a typical Anderson interview. In April of 2010, Anderson appeared on the lift-wing political program Democracy Now, hosted by socialist Amy Goodman. When addressing the issue of how the Church handles abusive priests, Anderson said the following: [Priests] are required to by their superiors, from the bishop to the Vatican, to keep [abuse] secret. And that’s under protocols and laws developed by the Pontiff, by the Vatican that says “We are required to avoid scandal, to protect the reputation of the church” and in so doing, are embedded with an ethos, a norm that says, we move the priest, avoid scandal, do not report it to anybody outside the clerical culture, and continue to move and protect the priest without regard to the well-being of the children. [N]othing has really fundamentally changed in the clerical culture. And that the decision of the Pontiff and at the Vatican, they’re fundamentally still operating under the same protocols of secrecy and self-protection that they did 100 years ago. . . .The fact is the well-established policy in the United States for Church officials to immediately report credible child abuse accusations to civil authorities. Here is Article Four of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Based on principles and policies from years earlier, the charter was approved in June of 2002. Article 4. Dioceses/eparchies are to report an allegation of sexual abuse of a person who is a minor to the public authorities. Dioceses/eparchies are to comply with all applicable civil laws with respect to the reporting of allegations of sexual abuse of minors to civil authorities and cooperate in their investigation in accord with the law of the jurisdiction in question. Dioceses/eparchies are to cooperate with public authorities about reporting cases even when the person is no longer a minor. Table of Contents: 1. Failing grades 2. Not the Catholic Church 3. Administrators not bishops 4. Just one district 5. Trailblazing 6. Two sides 7. The voice of an accused priest 8. “Repressed memories”? 9. SNAP and friends 10. An ACORN in SNAP 11. No good deed . . . 12. Times have changed 13. Working the pews 14. Attorney Jeff Anderson 15. “Considerable doubt” 16. Deliver us from evil 17. Roman Polanski: not a Catholic priest 18. Silent ambassadors