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Spotlight on ‘Spotlight’: Two Armenians Who Took On the Catholic Church
Special for the Armenian Weekly
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Terrific job here Katie, and thank you Nanore and the Weekly staff for assigning and editing the piece. Mitchell Garabedian saw something that none of us had before – that the church was at the center of the coverup and taking settlement money from the Archdiocese would have just perpetuated the coverup. The real heroes here are he and the victims that he represented.
We hope everyone will see the “Spotlight” movie. What’s frustrating and very disturbing is that these crimes and cover ups within the Catholic church continue to this day.
Let’s hope that anyone who has been harmed will have the courage to come forward. Silence only hurts. By speaking up there is a chance
for healing, exposing the truth, and therefore protecting others
Judy Jones, SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) 636-433-2511. snapjudy@gmail.com,
Garabedian is an awesome real life hero, battling the Catholic mafia, and Tucci plays him well.
“Spotlight” shows how difficult it is to get the truth out of an organized crime syndicate. A team of Boston journalists worked tirelessly to find out that the Catholic church knowingly was running a massive organized childrape crime syndicate in Boston and around the world back in a time when the Catholic had a powerful influence.
Make no mistake, this is a movie about organized crime, featuring the Catholic church, the largest organized childrape crime syndicate in the history of the US, and in BRUTAL defiance of Jesus in Matt 18:6-14, where Jesus said childrape was unforgivable.
The Catholic church’s organized crime syndicate is worse than Whitey Bulger’s from Black Mass. This movie shows how the Catholic church exhibited the same “code of silence” that the mafia has, without the honor, as they were protecting at least 249 “confessed” pedo-priests in Boston.
Whitey Bulger killed 20 adults. The creepy pedo-priests in the Catholic church raped over 1,000 children in Boston alone, thanks to at least 249 pedophile priests, hidden and protected by hundreds of other priests, including Cardinal Law. (Only 90 were known at the time of the movie, but credits at the end show 249, and the number is now 271).
The Catholic church admitted 4,329 substantiated, accused pedophile priests in the US in their own John Jay report of 2004, and of course they lied. The number is well over 6,900.
And the Catholic church hid & protected 100% of their known pedo-priests, worldwide (Matt 18:6-14). Cowardly, rampant, unforgivable evil, in brutal defiance of Jesus, has a name, and it is the Catholic church.
I watched the movie, it was terrific. Every Armenian should watch it. The theater, which is in my hometown Glendale, had quite a few Armenians. When the highly talented Stanley Tucci (playing Garabedian) said “I am Armenian,” the Armenians in the theater applauded. It was a great moment.
Thank you for your and your colleagues’ work, Mr. Kurkjian. You make us Armenians proud.
We Armenians … we Armenians … we can accomplish so much.
Thank you so much, mr. Kurljian and mr. Garbedian for your wisdom, courage, persistence for justice and truth. You are the heroes and I’m happy to have read your story which certainly should have been highlighted. It deserves another movie.
There were crimes committed by Catholic priests, and I am glad they got exposed and convicted, but I feel that a lot of the motivation for exposure is based on anti-Catholic sentiment by certain groups of people who have historically hated the Catholic church, and Christianity in general. Criminal priests does not equate to an entire religion. Other religions have the same kinds of problems, but they don’t get any coverage in the mainstream media.
“The US is no longer a Christian country” may not be a solid fact currently, but it certainly is in the works.
Hagop,
I believe some of the spotlight reporters were themselves Catholic. Also, the reason this became such an issue was the extent of time this was happening, the sheer number of priests involved and how deep the coverup went. The Catholic church created the perfect storm for this to happen, by trying to hide it, rather than deal with the issue.
And of course, this is most likely happening in other religious groups as well. Any time we have authority figures backed by an organization and which is hard for the average person to stand up to and challenge, things like this will happen.
Is Garabedian a hater of Christianity? The thing is, this was happening. And it needed to be exposed.
We will soon be at a point where the country is no longer majority white, but it will continue to be majority Christian for a long time.
The thing is that when sexuality is suppressed, it raises its head in ugly forms in any sphere of life. The Catholic church must change its attitude towards its own priests. Either they should be allowed to marry or their ordinance should not be allowed until they at least 25 or 30. The future priests enter the church service mostly when they are teenagers. They think that they love God and want to serve Him. The majority of them are most definitely virgins, and they have no idea in what they are getting themselves in a physiological meaning. When they are fully grown adults with needs, they are already in another world, and it very hard to break from that world because they do not know another life. So, they break the chain going after the most vulnerable and unprotected ones — children.
Regardless of one’s motivations or actions in this horrendous story, I’m quite certain it’s true that the sheer scale and structure of the abuse and cover-ups at every level of the Catholic Church shrink such stories in any other denomination into important but minuscule numbers by comparison. Child sexual abuse occurs, sadly, within an unimaginable array of circumstances, not confining itself to any particular social stratum, personal relationship, occupation, or position of respect. Teachers do it, coaches do it, grandpas and uncles, daddies and brothers do it, and sometimes even mothers, aunts, sisters and grandmothers do it, as do neighbors and old family friends. It’s always hideous and unforgivable, a true aberration. It’s always embarrassing for the victim, the perpetrator, and anyone who discovers the truth and fears that it will become known. I believe it’s a natural reaction to shrink from the knowledge that such unnatural acts would certainly bring general condemnation from outsiders. “Daylighting” all forms of abuse is the only way to remove the impunity with which such heinous acts are performed. Regardless of one’s thoughts on the Catholic Church, it is the well-being of the victims which must always be at the forefront. Figures of authority will always have the upper hand unless awareness is promoted as it sometimes is today in school and family settings. Unfortunately, neither children nor their parents can afford to remain blind to this particular threat. ALL children must be taught not to tolerate any touching that makes them feel uncomfortable or frightened, and they MUST be taught to tell a responsible adult, regardless of any threats of harm made against them. Let’s keep our kids safe.
There is a small number of Catholic priests in the US. Given the large number of pedophile priests, due to the extent to which they were moved from parish to parish, and due to their well documented presence in seminaries, it is not possible that the extent of the problem was not known to every priest in America. How can anyone put their child in the care of these people?
how do we get to see this film? i never heard of it until i read this post. i am from new jersey. what i read was so honorable!
Mitchell garabedian is deserveing of all the acclaim for his pioneer efforts for victims of institutional abuse by. Sexually deprived priests.
He personally exiled Law, who should have been arrested
However Mitch G became a contingency junky
More interested on his contingent fees than the injustice he proclaimed. I knew of several priest one deceased , whose cases consisted of long abo accusations which were uncorroberated and
Flimsy. I’m sure more exist. Mr Garabedian developed such fear inthe archdiocese that he abused lie the entity he excoriated.