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Cardinal Tarcisio BERTONE
Secretary of State
Vatican City, ITALY

Subject: Money hungry attorneys

Reference: Your Nashville, Tennessee Address


May the Peace of God be upon you, Cardinal Bertone!

We have read in the UK's The Tablet (August 18th issue) (1) about your remarks in reference to the exorbitant amount of money the Archdiocese of Los Angeles had to pay to settle the sexual abuse cases pending.

I have seen that happen in many different situations. That is a frequently used format by attorneys in the US when engaging in liability cases.

They usually use such technique when they know that the defendant would do anything to avoid going to trial. As you well know, if most sexual abuse by the clergy cases had gone to trial many "dirty secrets" of the Roman Catholic Administration would have been exposed and, who knows, we could have even seen Cardinal Law (2) in jail instead of "Reigning" over Santa Maria Majore. An insult to the Immaculate One (3) .

Therefore - although an outrageous amount, it would have cost the Roman Catholic Church far more if each case had gone to trial and the "dirty secrets" exposed.

I understand that it was only a small handful of priests committing the abuses, but that was never the problem. The real problem was a large percentage of the Hierarchy (4) masterminding the cover up by shuffling the priests around thus spreading the spiritual infection far and wide. The pedophile priests are indeed ill, however, those who conduct the cover ups are evil.

Yes - it was an outrageous amount of money but you and the rest of the Roman Curia (5) should be thanking your patron Saints because otherwise the price would have been even higher, although not necessarily in dollars and cents.


miguel de Portugal
+ by the Grace of God









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