Helena Holy Roman Kiddie Diddlers file for bankruptcy; Rapid City, Sioux Falls next?

According to South Dakota's most obese GOP blogger, that state's embattled governor is apparently surprised that liberty and justice for all is merely a legend in his own mind. The recent sale of Blue Cloud Abbey near Watertown seeks to pay for years of sex abuse at the hands of catholic clergy.

The Cathedral in Helena is stunning architecture that hid decades of abuse:

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena filed for bankruptcy protection Friday as part of a proposed $15 million settlement for hundreds of victims who say clergy members sexually abused them over decades while the church covered it up. In one of the lawsuits, the plaintiffs said they were repeatedly raped, fondled or forced to perform sex acts while at school, on the playground, on camping trips or at the victims' homes. The second lawsuit, filed a week after the first in 2011, includes 95 of the 362 plaintiffs and contains similar allegations against priests, but also alleged that nuns at the Ursuline Academy in St. Ignatius abused dozens of Native American children. [Matt Volz, AP]

@TheMT_Cowgirl: The IR refused to write about the diocese abuse settlement for $15M and to even keep the AP story up #mtpol
— Montana Cowgirl (@TheMT_Cowgirl) February 2, 2014

Mary Garrigan tells us from the Journal that nine Rapid City area predator priests were exposed in a recent United States Conference of Catholic Bishops report:

The majority of the Rapid City diocese’s allegations were made in connection with the litigation involving a Catholic boarding school for Native American students at St. Francis, a Jesuit-run mission on the Rosebud Reservation that was staffed by the Wisconsin Province of the Society of Jesus, according to the Rev. Steve Biegler, diocese administrator. The Diocese of Sioux Falls did not respond as of Wednesday to a request to release its 2010 audit or survey results. Last year, 55 dioceses, including Rapid City, received letters expressing concerns about record-keeping and reporting procedures that could result in non-compliance.

How the Feds Finally Reduced Crime on Indian Reservations http://t.co/OvuEgh12jX
— Brendan Johnson (@Brendan_SD) February 3, 2014

From the Great Falls Tribune via indianz.com:

Richard King, a member of the Fort Belknap Indian Community in Montana, suffered abuse at a Jesuit-run school on the reservation but kept quiet for almost 50 years. King is part of a $166.1 million settlement with the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus. Attorneys estimate more than 500 Native Americans in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington were victimized by members of the clergy.

Beatification for a dead pope is on the fast track. From US Catholic:

Sadly, the most significant but disappointing legacy of Pope John Paul II was his decision to play down the clergy sex abuse of minors. He initially "blamed American culture" and didn’t treat it as a big deal. But particularly bad is that he thought to “rescue” Boston's Cardinal Law from hostile critics by letting Law skulk over to Vatican City. By doing so, John Paul II rewarded or at least shrugged off Law’s disgusting pattern of transferring sexually abusive priests to other parishes, where of course they simply corralled more children and adolescent boys to engage in sexually deviant practices, ruining hundreds of lives.

My morning creamed with organic half and half from free-range cows-organic, fair-trade coffee drinking partner read aloud this letter to the Santa Fe New Mexican:

Great, now this election year can be all about gay marriage, a human-rights issue we could have solved years ago. Concerned about sexual morals? Then get to work bringing pedophile priests, domestic abusers and human traffickers to justice.

Meanwhile, this nation's policy discourse should be about liberating us from the corrupt corporate-congressional revolving door and realistically addressing what's headed our way from tar-sands filth, BP dispersants, Monsanto poisons, melting ice caps, Fukushima, and our own nuclear mess. Wake up, people! Someone else's marriage can't kill you, but the rest of this stuff could.

Sasha Pyle
Santa Fe