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Exposing the ones exposing others

While the work of exposing criminal behavior (abuse) goes on inside the Church, as it should, Catholics should be discerning of who they ask for help.  Jeff Anderson, the St. Paul Minnesota-based lawyer now well known for taking on clergy abuse cases, recently said that he was just doing a supposed cleansing of the Church.  He said: ‘It’s the pursuit of a virtue.”  Yet, the story behind Anderson suggests otherwise.  Anderson has no interest in the Church or Christianity, having ‘long doubted God’s existence.’  He has also said that he sees no reality in the Christian faith: ‘I find the same thing running through every religion…(like), Christ was a student of Budda.’  Anderson he mildly practices Zen Buddhism now, and says he once joined the Catholic faith due to marrying a Catholic teen he had impregnated, whom he later divorced.  He said he was a long-time abuser of alcohol and confesses many other faults. 

Now he’s the most powerful lawyer working off the scandals of abuse. Anderson may be intoxicated with his new-found power, too.  In dissing the pope, he remarked recently:  ‘He’s just a man who is occupying an office.’  Anderson put out a threat, too:  It’s just “the tip of the iceberg…I hope they suffer...”  Anderson’s dream is to put the pope on trial.

Anderson parades himself as someone who is doing the Church a favor.  He has said that he is

causing sort-of-a-modern Reformation.  But he is no Martin Luther, nor even a practicing believer. 

He is a lawyer who has found a profitable niche. His cases in the past two decades or more now number one-and-a-half thousand versus the Catholic Church, plus there are two-to-three thousand ones against others, including other denominations. He collects 25-40% of each payout, which has amassed into the tens of millions of dollars.  He admitted in 2002 it was $60 million so far.  He has become rich in his work.  Joe Maher, a critic, comments:  “it’s naïve to believe that civil attorneys (as Anderson--getting on board in these cases) aren’t just salivating at the bottom line.”  Lawrence Buser, a commenter-journalist says:  “Churches of every faith are a target rich environment…(Catholics) are hardly the only denomination with such a problem.”  He said that schools are 30 times more likely for abuse cases than churches, though, citing a 2006 Hofstra study.  It is a new legal field open for lawyers’ profit. Very few lawyers will join in for the virtue of it; and Anderson is not one himself.   But there are Christian lawyers who have respect for the Church, and work with it, while acting to expose the criminal behavior of the offendants.  Anderson likens his work, instead, to a pack of wild dogs chasing the bishops.

Anderson charters his own jet for himself and a team of lawyers, in seeking out anyone that has an abuse story involving the Christian Church.  Maher, of Opus Bono Sacerdotii (For the Good of the Priesthood), tells of the harm which Anderson’s carefree investigations bring to the Church and society:  “They meet with someone in a few minutes, lump allegations together, throw lawsuits at the wall, and see what sticks.  In the meantime, men’s lives are being ruined.  They don’t care (of the innocent priests or people or the Church)…everyone they have targeted is guilty (before proof)…they go to the media with this stuff now, everyone they sue is guilty until proven innocent.”  That’s the style of Anderson’s work.  

Another lawyer from Anderson’s city of St. Paul says that his work is way different from Jeff’s in that it cooperates with the Archdiocese or the religious orders or the Christian churches in exposing and criminally prosecuting their perpetrators.  In St. Paul, people have formed some strong negative opinions of their Twin-cities neighbor Anderson. On Minnesota radio last week, someone said: “A Jeff Anderson was inevitable to surface in the possible legal work in the American Church’s big problem—yet the man claiming to help harmed people will himself be willing to do terrible harm to gain his objectives.  This is little of a true moral life to him.  He is money and power driven.” One place on Church perspectives in Minnesota is www.stjstp.org or at TheCatholicSpirit.com  (bishop’s column).   These other neighbors have a word to say about Anderson, too.

The Church definitely has a crisis at hand. It needs help. Anderson is not a “helper” to trust.  Why would any Catholic bring their case to his office?   There are other lawyers of integrity to choose from.  It will a major renewal work for sure, with some real difficulty ahead, and honest looks at things. Those who love the Church can handle it.              ###

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