There are three court dates this Tuesday morning:
(1) Father Kenneth O’Keefe csb
Basilian priest Father Kenneth O’Keefe, who entered a guilty plea to charges in Ontario September last, has a court date on his Quebec sex charges.
22 January 2013: 09:00 am, courtroom #4, Hull, Quebec courthouse (17, rue Laurier). I was told that this is, in French “pro forma.” I don’t have any idea what will happen but do think it will be a case of setting another date.
If anyone is free to attend please do so, and please pass on word of the outcome. And please, as always. keep the complainant in your prayers.
I will check on Wednesday to find out when the next court date is.
(2) Father George Smith
22 January 2013: 10 am, for sentencing, Corner Brook, Newfoundland courthouse (82 Mt. Bernard Ave.)
This morning those victims who wish to do so will give their victim impact impact statements, there will be an account of sorts outlining the charges to which Father Smith has pled guilty, perhaps other reports, and both the Crown and defence will argue as to what sort of sentence they think the judge should should impose.
I hope there will be people in attendance to support the victims. They need your support. Please, if you are withing driving distance of the courthouse, try to get there. If you do attend, please pass on news of the proceedings, and/or links to media coverage.
And, please keep the victims in your prayers.
(3) Father Daniel Miller
22 January 2013: 2 pm, judicial pre-trial, Pembroke, Ontario courthouse (NOT open to the public)
This is a ‘meeting’ between the lawyers and a judge. It is NOT open to the public. Even though this is not open to the public I still ask that you keep the complainants in your prayers in a special way today. They will I am sure spend the day wondering what is going on.
I will check tomorrow or Thursday to find out when the next court date is.
*****
Here we go again. A raft of those documents have been released in Los Angeles. And, well, from the little I’ve read, evidence of outright cover-up in the archdiocese while shuttling known predators around, keeping them from the long arm of the law, and recycling them:
21 January 2013: ‘I am sorry,’ Cardinal Mahony says amid new priest abuse details
And, yes, more of the inevitable “”I’m sorries,” and more ‘We didn’t know’ and ‘We didn’t understand.’
As I have said in the past, what is it about the biblical millstones that they don’t quite comprehend?
Meanwhile, over in Australia the Royal Commission is preparing to gear up to study the institutional response to child sex abuse in Australia.
Sound familiar? The institutional response?
How many times must the wheel be re-invited?
The Australian Commission will I am sure be greeted with a chorus of ‘We didn’t knows,’ and ‘We didn’t understands’ coupled with those of ‘understaffed,” and “overworked,’ and rounded out with a healthy complement of ‘I don’t recalls’ and “I don’t remembers.’
Do yo ever feel you’re watching a little hamster scurrying like mad on his little wheel – faster and faster and faster, puffing and panting as his little feet scurry along, and getting absolutely nowhere?
Oh dear, – frustrating at times.
Enough for now,
Sylvia