Cliff Kincaid
The Kavanaugh cover-ups and justice in America
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By Cliff Kincaid
September 3, 2018

The Catholic Church would not be able to function as a criminal enterprise without the financial contributions of its members. Unless Catholic parishioners restricted their contributions to the local poor, their largesse was at least partly going toward underwriting the activities of pedophile priests and cover-ups through the Catholic bureaucracies in Washington, D.C., and Rome. Judge Brett Kavanaugh, a Catholic, should be asked about this growing scandal during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Has he been implicated in the scandal through his donations to the church?

This is a question that every Catholic, not just Kavanaugh, should ask and answer.

But as a former altar boy who is the father of two young daughters and who mentored Catholic youth, what did Kavanaugh know and do about the sexual abuse of minors within his church? Did he volunteer as a lawyer to seek justice for the innocent young ones who were abused and had their lives destroyed by predator priests? That's called pro bono work in the legal profession. If he did, he should tell the Senate about these cases.

Or did he defer to the church officials orchestrating the cover-ups?

Groups such as Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and Ending Clergy Abuse should be heard before another politically-connected Catholic is confirmed to the Supreme Court.

Catholics across the country are in revolt against the church hierarchy, with Catholic writer Vic Biorseth arguing for putting clerics in jail. He says, "When organized, conspiratorial criminal activity crosses state lines, as do all the organized sexual abuse crimes, predominantly of a homosexual nature, committed by Catholic Clerics of all ranks and systematically covered-up by them, the situation calls for a RICO [Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act] investigation. As a matter of fact, when such organized, conspiratorial crime activity crosses national lines, it calls for INTERPOL [International Criminal Police Organization] to get involved. Especially now that it so clearly traces all the way to the Vatican."

The conservative Catholic group Church Militant reports the possibility of a RICO investigation of the Catholic Church in the United States and its Silence Stops Now Coalition is organizing protests against Catholic bishops. Indeed, with the proliferation of grand juries investigating the church, a case involving church officials could reach the Supreme Court. Would Kavanaugh recuse himself?

Kavanaugh emphasized his Catholic background when he was nominated by President Trump, saying, "I am part of the vibrant Catholic community in the D.C. area." He was a volunteer at the Washington Jesuit Academy for boys and mentioned that the motto of his own Jesuit high school was "Men for others."

But now that a new wave of allegations of sexual abuse has hit the Catholic Church, including Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, D.C., Kavanaugh is right in the middle of the controversy. Another such wave occurred in 2002, based on the Boston Globe investigations of predator priests and cover-ups in Boston.

Jesuit Pope Francis remains silent about the charges implicating the Vatican in the cover-up. But Kavanaugh shouldn't be allowed to get away with a "no comment."

The continuing cover-up

After the recent revelations about McCarrick came out, Kavanaugh's parish newsletter carried a message from the parish priest trying to convince members to continue making "financial contributions to their parish" and offering a "healing mass" for victims.

But as a professional lawyer in a Catholic community where officials preyed on young people, Kavanaugh had a moral and legal obligation to seek help for the victims. It's fine to coach the Catholic basketball team, as we hear from the parents of the girls on the team. What, if anything, did he do for the victims of sexual abuse?

Catholics are withholding money from the collection plate, with some saying "shame on you" to officials of the church such as Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington. But the strange goings-on of the Catholic hierarchy go back many years. Catholics have been consistently withholding money for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, the "social justice" arm of the Bishops which has a history of funding organizations that promote abortion, homosexuality, and Marxism. Did Kavanaugh withhold his family's funds? Was he aware of the Catholic support for Barack Hussein Obama that dates back to Obama's community organizing days in Chicago?

That left-wing agenda, which is still the official program of Pope Francis, was alluded to by liberal Cardinal Blase Cupich when he said the pope "has a bigger agenda" than the sex scandals and has to move on "with other things of talking about the environment and protecting migrants...." Indeed, the Vatican issued a "Message of the Holy Father for the celebration of the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation," attacking the "endless fields of floating plastic" in the seas and oceans.

It's not violating the Constitution's ban on a religious test for federal office to demand answers about Kavanaugh's involvement in a criminal enterprise that wants to cover up sex crimes by talking about floating plastic.

What did Kavanaugh know?

Let's stipulate that Kavanaugh is a good father and basketball coach, and that he loves his wife and kids. What did he say or do about corruption in the church? Did he ever see the 2015 Oscar-winning film "Spotlight," based on the Boston Globe investigations in 2002 of predator priests and cover-ups in Boston? Did he take any action to see if these problems were occurring in Washington, where he has been based for his entire career?

When the Archdiocese of Washington years ago rolled out a program of "child protection" that emphasized background checks for parents, employees, and volunteers, rather than for clergy, did he object to it as insufficient?

Since he emphasizes his Catholicism, it is worth noting that his confirmation would bring the number of those with a Catholic background to 6 of 9 justices on the Court. Did any of these Catholics say anything about the sexual abuse scandal? We find many of them attending the Red Mass, a Roman Catholic liturgy held annually the Sunday before the Supreme Court's new term that includes judges, lawyers, law school professors, and government officials. Coverage brings much favorable attention to the American Catholic Church.

The Red Mass homily was delivered in 2005 by Cardinal McCarrick, and the attendees included President George Bush, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts, and other members of the Administration and Supreme Court. Quoting from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Philippians, McCarrick said, "The most striking of Paul's admonitions in this reading is his good counsel that our thoughts – and our words – should be wholly directed to all that is true, all that deserves respect, all that is honest, pure, decent, virtuous or worthy of praise. Paul assures us as an apostle of the Lord that if we do this, if we speak and work in this way, the God of Peace will be with us."

This is the same Cardinal McCarrick who has been identified as the highest-ranking U.S. Catholic leader ever to be removed for sexually abusing a child and is also accused of sexually abusing seminarians. He was a leading "progressive" in the church who supported homosexual civil unions, a form of marriage, as far back as 2006.

Catholic columnist Matt Abbott, who reported on McCarrick's homosexual activity back in 2005, told me, "I believe the Church establishment and mainstream media protected him, mainly because he's a prominent liberal cardinal."

Who else was in on the "secret?" Did Kavanaugh know?

Kavanaugh would be replacing another "devout" Catholic, Anthony Kennedy, who also attended the Red Mass but promoted abortion and same-sex marriage from the bench. Kavanaugh, who was a law clerk for Kennedy, says Kennedy's legacy is one of "securing liberty," a strange statement coming from someone who postures as a constitutional conservative.

As we approach the nationwide release of "GOSNELL: The Trial of America's Biggest Serial Killer," about the notorious abortionist, it is worth asking Kavanaugh: Do you believe in the human right to life of the innocent unborn? Do you truly believe "settled law" and "precedent" justify 60 million abortions? And do you really believe that a "right" for a man to marry another man is in the Constitution, as Justice Kennedy claimed?

Kavanaugh attends Ted Kennedy's church

Kavanaugh attends the Most Blessed Sacrament parish in Washington, D.C., which was also attended by the late liberal Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy, a fervent supporter of abortion on demand. Rather than being excommunicated for his pro-abortion views, which violated church teaching on the sanctity of unborn human life, Kennedy was given a fancy Catholic funeral when he passed away in 2009. A priest from the Most Blessed Sacrament (Kavanaugh's church) was a concelebrant of the funeral mass, and Cardinal McCarrick performed the burial service at Arlington National Cemetery.

Kavanaugh's Blessed Sacrament parish had an ongoing Abrahamic Faiths Project, which in 2008 featured Cardinal McCarrick talking about "peace in the Middle East" and how Muslims supposedly worship the same God as Christians and Jews. McCarrick was known to favorably compare Islam to Catholicism and has been labeled "McCarrick the Muslim." He visited Iran in 2011 with Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim Brotherhood affiliate.

The Foster murder cover-up

But Kavanaugh has another big question mark on his record. We read on the Brett Kavanaugh nominations page of the Senate Judiciary Committee that former Bill Clinton attorney Bob Bennett endorses Kavanaugh, noting, "I still remember Brett bringing [his daughters] Margaret and Liza to our house when they were younger for Halloween trick-or-treating. These days, he proudly recounts their scholastic and athletic accomplishments to anyone who will listen."

It's nice that Kavanaugh takes his girls trick-or-treating to pick up candy. But critics note that Kavanaugh completely mishandled the Vincent Foster death probe, which was part of the overall Clinton investigation, when he concluded that the former Clinton Deputy White House counsel killed himself. Among other things, as witness Patrick Knowlton testified, Foster's car was not at the park when he died. What's more, the gun in Foster's hand was not his, and his fingerprints were not on the gun. President Trump once called the death "fishy," and he was right.

I was joined at the National Press Club recently by Foster researcher Hugh Turley and witness Patrick Knowlton's lawyer John Clarke, briefing a group of journalists about this case. After prosecutor Kavanaugh signed a subpoena for Knowlton's grand jury appearance, Knowlton was harassed on the streets of Washington by government agents of the Deep State. He wouldn't change his story to fit the suicide in the park narrative. It sounds incredible, but it's all true and completely documented. Hugh Turley and Patrick Knowlton have submitted a 7-page letter with 81 pages of documentation on this matter to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The Foster case certainly proves that Brett Kavanaugh has been a "fixer," representing what former prosecutor Miguel Rodriguez called the "ultimate power" in government – what we would call the Deep State or the Swamp. The trouble for Kavanaugh is that Rodriguez quit the Foster case rather than participate in the cover-up, and there is an extensive paper trail of documents and tape-recordings of conversations proving that Foster was murdered in the worst Clinton cover-up of all time. Foster was linked to NSA surveillance activities, and the case was probed by an FBI expert on sex crimes. What was going on here?

Most of this will, of course, be ignored by both sides in the confirmation battle. Democrats and Republicans will try to score partisan political points without bringing up this particular Clinton scandal. But President Trump, always suspicious of the Foster case, should seriously consider withdrawing Kavanaugh's name from consideration. He could blame outgoing White House counsel Don McGahn for the flawed nomination process that produced Kavanaugh.

These Foster-related questions are in addition to the Catholic sex abuse cover-up and the fact that Washington insiders such as Kavanaugh had to have known something about it.

There are too many of us, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, who are sick and tired of the cover-ups. What did Kavanaugh know and when did he know it?

© Cliff Kincaid

 

The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
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