No segment of the population has been inundated with more bogus lawsuits than Catholic priests. The latest one out of Rhode Island is hard to top.
A Pawtucket man said he was molested by a member of the New England Province of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart when he was in the seventh grade. But there are a few problems with his tale:
• the alleged abuse took place more than a half-century ago
• the alleged offender is dead
• the accuser never reported the offense to the authorities
• the accuser never contacted the religious order
• the school where this allegedly happened is closed
• the accuser says he never remembered the alleged abuse until he watched a TV show about molestation in 2008
• the accuser says the Penn State case has added to his pain
• the accuser says he doesn’t trust people
• the accuser has been married seven times
• the accuser has had 82 jobs
His legal counsel, Mitchell Garabedian, is one of America’s premier steeple-chasing lawyers; he is utterly shameless and has an embarrassing track record in court.
But one can look at the bright side: this case suggests that the haters of the Catholic Church are running out of “victims” to exploit.