The Lower Depths

That's where you'll find the Catholic hierarchy. If you ever had any doubt that the institutional Church was about anything but money and power, this should answer that question for you.

Turning the tables on an advocacy group that has long supported victims of pedophile priests, lawyers for the Roman Catholic Church and priests accused of sexual abuse in two Missouri cases have gone to court to compel the group to disclose more than two decades of e-mails that could include correspondence with victims, lawyers, whistle-blowers, witnesses, the police, prosecutors and journalists.

The group, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, is neither a plaintiff nor a defendant in the litigation. But the group has been subpoenaed five times in recent months in Kansas City and St. Louis, and its national director, David Clohessy, was questioned by a battery of lawyers for more than six hours this year. A judge in Kansas City ruled that the network must comply because it “almost certainly” had information relevant to the case.

Of course, Bill Donohue has to stick his two cents in:

But William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, a church advocacy group in New York, said targeting the network was justified because “SNAP is a menace to the Catholic Church.”

Mr. Donohue said leading bishops he knew had resolved to fight back more aggressively against the group: “The bishops have come together collectively. I can’t give you the names, but there’s a growing consensus on the part of the bishops that they had better toughen up and go out and buy some good lawyers to get tough. We don’t need altar boys.” (Emphasis added.)

And talk about a busted irony meter -- yeah, those altar boys are pretty useless, aren't they? At least, they are if they complain about being abused.

Y'know, it's interesting that I don't have to comment much on this story. I just need to let the bishops' actions speak for themselves.

Digby, as usual, nails it:

You can't help but wonder if that's the smartest move for an institution that's claiming that it's "conscience" won't let it's employees have access to insurance provided birth control to go on a crusade against rape victims of Catholic priests. But hey, why not. Nobody's even allowed to mention that the same people who covered up decades of sexual abuse in their own institution are all over the country declaring their moral righteousness. Why should they think they can't get away with this too?

Disgusting people, indeed.