Here is Rodrigue’s criminal resume:

Sentenced to probation in 1979 for abuse of one youth.
Sentenced in 1998 to 10 yrs prison for abuse of youth in 1997.
Released from prison Jan. 2006.
1st suit set for trial 6/07.
Judge has ruled that Diocese of San Diego may be assessed punitive damages if found liable.
-- bishopaccountability.org
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Catholic Church Attorneys Try to Use New SOL Law In Defense of Pedophile Priest Michael Baker
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Baker’s Criminal Case to Slide Into Graphic Definitions of Child Molest Acts as the Pervert Priest Looks On From His Cage

Yesterday all the hearings in the clergy cases went off calendar but down the street in criminal court Michael Baker was up to more dirty tricks.

When pedophile priest Steven Michael Baker was arrested as he returned from a Thailand vacation in 2005, his prosecution was possible because of new law passed in the California Legislature opening a window in the statute of limitations on child molest cases. Now Baker and his LA Catholic Archdiocese attorneys are claiming the new wording of penal code 803 (f) along with other irregularities in the penal code on different acts of child rape are grounds for charges against the pedophile priest to be dismissed.

Defense attorneys for Baker are trying to take advantage of that very confusion in child molest law to get their client set free. The recent demurrer Donald Steier filed on behalf of Michael Baker will now cause the Baker trial to get bogged down in arguments where grown men in suits pick apart the difference between oral copulation and vaginal sex, if it’s sodomy is it statutory rape or sexual assault if the child is 14 to 16 years old, and since a pedophile who preys on little boys can’t possibly penetrate a vagina, the entire law is unconstitutional as it doesn’t treat gays equally.

That is how bizarre the criminal trial of Michael Baker is going to be on March 13th at 1 PM (coincidentally there are several hearings for civil cases against the L.A. Archdiocese a block away in Superior Court March 16 at 8:30 AM, and anyone who comes on either side, we can all go to lunch in between.)

‘It discriminates against me because I’m a homosexual. ‘—Baker

In California if the crime of child molestation is sodomy the sentence and post-time registration are different than if the crime is vaginal penetration. Therefore the law discriminates against homosexuals, according to ex-priest Michael Baker and his Cardinal Mahony appointed attorney Donald Steier, (postulating by the way that homosexuals are the same as men who rape little boys).

Baker was probably looking forward to these arguments that will have to take place in open court describing sodomy and vaginal penetration when he grinned like the demon he is from behind the prisoners’ barricades in L.A. Criminal Court yesterday. Thanks to this legal challenge of the constitutionality of the California penal code law, PC803 (f) specifically, as it was amended in 2005, a California prosecutor and Baker’s attorney will be going over details of these crimes, specifically as they apply to different age groups of minors while the priest beams from behind his barricades, enjoying another manipulation of California’s screwed up criminal codes.

I believe it is a “cop out”. I also feel the majority of the victims are suing as the only means of finally stopping this abuse. What I am very concerned about is how the bankruptcy will affect the church’s other “businesses”. My mother is in an assisted-living facility run by the Carmelite nuns.
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I am disgusted by the actions of the Catholic Church. The Church and Bishop Brom have never ernestly acknowledged and atoned for the priest sexual scandals. This is more of the same.  I can now call myself a recovering Catholic who will not return to the Church.

Yes the Bishop once again has revealed his willingness to outright lie. This is nothing more than a well thought out, and orchestrated attempt to confuse the public into thinking they are the victims. Its obvious to me that his “Bankruptcy letter” was intended to taint any potential jury pool, and create animosity between the victims and San Diego’s good catholics. When the truth comes out, and it will, either in court or the press, the Bishop will have learned the lesson that you cannot serve two masters at once, god and money. Makes you wonder, what could be so terrible, that a Bishop would do such things? Stay tuned, the truth will find its way out, I don’t believe God would have it any other way.

I sure do hope Bishop Brom is sincere. 

Is there a more effective way of ending this abuse, other than lawsuits?  Now, that raises the question, are we talking of past-abuse or current?  I haven’t heard or seen anything in the media about something very recent--which I’m sure would be front page stuff.

Church officials have apologized in the past.  That is a fact. It would be false to say that the Church has “never” atoned or ackowledged or apologized.  That said, the “buddy system” bureaucrats within the Church have caused it great harm and should be rooted out.  Let us not forget that the Catholic Church is NOT monolithic as many perceive it.

I’ve never heard a satisfactory honest answer to the following:  “Where were all these abuse victims before?”

PS: Ernestly is spelled “earnestly,” Kim B.

This filing for bankruptcy is a fraud. It is not basically about money. Catholic Charities receives over 94 percent of its support from federal, state, and civic monies. Bishop Brom was the object of an allegation of abuse by a seminarian from the seminary in MN where Brom was a rector. That allegation was never ajudicated. Rather it was settled for money. (The bishop says 80 thousand dollars, but we know that when he said he settled a complaint against Msgr. Kraft for 80 thousand in 2000 the actual ammount was 250 thousand.) If the allegation against him was false and worth the 80 thousand he said he settled it for, what is a bonafied alleation worth? Any SD trial will bring out more facts about Brom’s sexual activity in MN. They have to stall and hide. Shame.

The Catholic Church has always been about money and power, and has historically used the power to abuse those it held sway over, and often used that power to extort money, land and other favors from those it “shepherded”. People should remember this about religious use of the references to shepherds and sheep; the shepherd only uses the sheep, mostly for wool, often for food, and then there’s the other use many sheep have had to put up with over the centuries. Sound familiar?

This whole scandal stems from not only from greed by SOME of those who claim to have been abused - decades ago - and their grubby lawyers, but also from politicians seeking to enhance their futures via the enactment of a bill allowing the statute of limitations to be extended in these cases.  It’s now a case of “tit for tat”; the church should be fully justified in countering an ill-advised law by way of a legal proceeding:  bankruptcy.  I am not a supporter of the Catholic Church, but I do believe in the use of any and all legal tools to counter lawsuits that emanate from greed.
Those who need thousands of dollars from the church before they can “begin the healing process” relative to decades-old events are simply aiding and abetting the attorneys who think that they have found a new Mother Lode in the Catholic Church.  Bankruptcy, as it should, will turn that into “Fool’s Gold”, and rightly so.  Only one’s state of mind - emotional maturation - will aid the healing process:  money will not.

Dear John Molina, the victims of sexual abuse do not simply come out of the woodwork for money, or mature their pain away. They spend years of shame, self blame, and fear of their abuser, as the abuser uses this fear as a means of control, and when the victim begins to recover from the incident, the abuser does it again, keeping the victim in a conditioned state of fear, and as a child taught this behavior by your abuser, you tend to live your life this way. I know that after I had a child, I began to realize that what had happened in the past affected my life today, that my child’s life was different and joyous from what I experienced. I had never dealt with the abuse I suffered, and come to terms with the self destructive anger that comes from it. I have years of counseling behind me know, and by some fate, the opportunity to pusue accountability appeared. Not having the financial resources to pursue the largest religious organization in the world, a lawyer offered to take my case. I can still remember the day he heard my story, and told me he could help me. I cried, and I have been crying ever since, to be believed, to be able to see that you are not alone, to be able to stand up and say at 9 years old I was a victim, helps to heal the pain and anguish that comes from sexual abuse as a child. For me, my trust in authority was shattered, as when I got the courage up to tell a nun what was happening to me, I was simply told not to make up stories, and the abuse continued, I was preyed upon, I felt ugly and at times life not worth living. The Catholic church has a long history of sexual and physical abuse of children.  The money won’t heal the scars or hide the pain, thats my job to fix now, but it sends a message to the church and others, that childhood sexual abuse is not just something that goes away, its a lifetime affliction that you think about every day, and that if you allow children to be abused, and INTENTIONALLY HIDE IT, then you will be accountable, the intent is to promote change and protect other children form the same abuses we suffered. If theres one saying I would like to tell my abuser, it would be,"An abused child never forgets”.

As an observer, I find the concept of bankruptcy entertaining and instructive:

1) The diocese is willing to label themselves as bankruptcy as a financial tool.
2) The leadership of the church has demonstrated moral bankruptcy by covering up and tolerating serious transgressions.
3) The plaintives and the public are morally bankrupt in believing money damages are the remedy for all problems.

It is quite irritating that all the money the church spends on these affairs is tax free.  Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union the Evil Empire.  The Soviet Union was a drop in the bucket compared to the Catholic Church.

I can only wonder: First - How old were these “victim” children at the time these abuses were to have taken place? Second - In reference to those who were unwilling to settle at the earlier opportunity, how is “healing” aided by settlements of such enormous proportions? Inflicting hurt on today’s children by closing their parishes and schools does, indeed, look like abuse of power and money, but on the part of the victims and their attorneys, rather than on the church.

Time does not diminish the injury, it only allows the injury to continuously affect your daily life. Counseling will help you find the path back to a life less affected by the injury. However, counseling is only sought out when the effects of the initial injury become obvious to the victim years later. Sometimes they don’t realize it is the root cause of the difficulties in their life. But even then, after counseling, the memories remain. If you are afraid the monetary award is too great, before you criticize, walk in the shoes of those injured, seek out a psychologist or counselor, and research the facts, and then perhaps you will not be so fast to criticize, but more understanding and empathetic, placing yourself on a better path to promoting change within your religion, that may prevent these tragedies from occurring again. I would give anything to have had a childhood devoid of the abuse suffered, and believe everyone has the same right. The goal is to prevent this from ever happening again, if you don’t have the fear of accountability and compensation for what your responsible for, then your more apt to do it again. Which is what has been happening in the catholic church. Lets hope this gets the church’s attention, and it is never allowed to ever happen again, and children are viewed as one of gods greatest gifts, not sexual conquests for sick and twisted individuals within the church.

According to Berry (2005), when speaking about Roger Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles, “If his reforms and rhetoric suggest a healing hand held out to people hungry for justice, the Cardinal’s other hand grips a shield. Mahony’s lawyers are waging the most expensive legal battle in American church history to thwart the Los Angeles district attorney’s subpoena for files of priests accused of sexual offenses, and to fight off possible charges of archdiocesan complicity in alleged crimes. The archdiocese is also fighting plaintiffs on releasing personnel files of priests in civil cases. The church’s 2004 legal bill was about $4 million”.

I believe the same could be said for San Diego’s Bishop Brom and many of the other “Princes of the Church”. Bankruptcy is just another shield to avoid moral and financial responsibility.

Throughout the history of the Catholic Church, there has been successive Bishops, Archbishops and Cardinals who have chose to protect the image and reputation of their institution rather than the safety and well being of the children entrusted to their care.  This is not a new problem nor is it one limited to Catholicism.  That however does not excuse the behaviors of priests who have preyed upon trusting children and devout Catholic families, or the cover-up perpetrated by Church hierarchy. I for one, expect a higher level of moral integrity from priests, Bishops and Cardinals of my Church.

These sexual offences against devout Catholic children were not limited to touching over a child’s clothing but have included depravity on a scale most persons could not even imagine. Children, in many cases young children, have been sodomized, raped, and forced to perform oral sex by a priest, the very person they believe represents God here on earth. And no one was there to protect them or rescue them as the abuse in many cases continued for years. Church leaders knew and did nothing to champion these Lambs of God.

These behaviors conveyed to these children that they were worthless, flawed and only of value when meeting another’s needs. Many of these children, now adults, were “brushed off” when they approached their Church for healing. These are individuals who suffer from addictions, eating disorders, multiple failed relationships, sexual dysfunctions and infertility, personality disorders, depression and anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and in some cases multiple psychiatric hospitalizations. And in some cases, these were individuals who experienced such deep emotional and spiritual pain that suicide appeared to be their only option to end their suffering.

Some of these children, now adults, chose to take a stand against one of the wealthiest and most powerful entities on the globe, the Catholic Church. They have publicly shared their abuse experiences and the most private parts of their lives. They have put aside their own needs sacrificing their time, money and lives to bring about change. They have spoken out on behalf of children everywhere, advocated for other victims and survivors like themselves and brought about social change in the form of stricter child abuse laws. Believe me when I say---they are not in it for the money.  That appears to be the Church hierarchy’s chief motivator.

Sandy G., Just another clergy abuse survivor.

I.M. Curious:

How many dues-paying Catholic Church members will:

1. no change in financial $upport to the Church?
2.(+) increase $upport to the Church?
3.(-) decrease $upport to the Church? 
4. take money out of the collection plate?

Padre Pierre

This just shows that the Catholic Church is more about money than about doing the right thing,t’was ever thus!

How sad it is for Brom to say that filing for bankruptcy is to protect funds for future victims.  He says there are no more sexually abusive priests left in the diocese.  If that is correct, then why is he concerned with having money for future victims?  He didn’t file for bancruptcy to protect the church’s assests, he filed to protect himself from criminal justice and hide all the offensive actions of his fellow priests.  After all this has been going on for centuries.  What makes the Catholics in the pews think that this type of sexual abuse to children will ever stop unless there is an accountability to the courts.  Criminal justice seems to be the only thing that seems to be able to strike a nerve with the church and get them to somewhat “mend their ways”.  Do you really think the diocese is innocent of these crimes? 

Victims are not out to destroy the financial support that funds all the charities run by the church.  Speaking to the church higher ups is talking to a stone wall.  They hear the victims complaints but turn a deft ear while they send their perpetrators to another parish so you won’t know that they are hiding their precious saints form criminal charges.  Wake up!  A person doesn’t just “get over it” when they have been abused as a child.  They carry the scar with them for the rest of their life.  They don’t understand why they don’t fit into society like everyone else.  They feel isolated, become alcoholics, prostitues, drug users, unable to maintain a real relationship with someone of the opposite sex, unable to hold a job for reasons they don’t understand, and yes, despair can overtake them so that they attempt or commit suicide.  All of this because of the “love our priests have for their sheep”.  That seems a little warped to me.  Yes these diocese perverts should be accountable for their sins, and if it be financial so be it.  In most of the cases the law is far behind, due to statutes of limitations, because the priest threatened to hurt siblings or other family members.  Some even threatened that the child would not be believed and they would only be punished again.  Most of these vicims suffered this abuse for years before their “priest” was transfered.  Remember, a child’s mind is not like an adults.  They have respect and love in them that is turned to poison by the actions of adults that sexually abuse them.  There is total confusion because maybe the priest has told them that their parents want them to have the sexual abuse done to them, that it is a part of their growing up training.  Remember these priests use whatever excuse that is available to convince these victims that they are alone.

Should the diocese pay for the damage that has occured to these victims?  Yes!  The ruined lives have no price tag.  No amount of money can undue the harm done to these victims.  I don’t think these victims are greedy.  They want the church (the people in the pews) to take note of what their priests are doing to the children.  It could be you child that is being abused, and when do you think you will finally find out?...when they are grown up enough to finally be able to vocalize what happened to them?  Have the statutes of limitation run out on them?  What kind of action do you think they will take?  Or you?

Filing for bankruptcy shows just how morally bankrupt the church has become.  Given the nature of this scandal, I’m not sure the church is fit to recover. 

Bishop Brom and all the men like him (and I see the church is filled to the roof with ‘em) should be purged.  I for one would understand and be patient for the seminaries to graduate righteous classes of qualified priests.  Every priest who can factually be identified as an abuser and the higher ups who knowingly moved them from place to place should be expelled from the church before the church is ever redeemed.  Anything less will never do.  Since this will never be done, I think the church as a moral institution is finished.  Catholic must begin the task of finding another place to worship.  We cannot sit in a pew quietly knowing that the church has raped and betrayed the innocent.  What sort of christian would that make us if we ever did less?  My answer to that question is it would make us conspirtors to the corruption of the innocent.  That will never do ... farwell Catholic Church ... I guess we never knew you ...

Brom’s desire to “take responsibility” is another in a series of smokescreens created by this guy. Witness the article below taken from the http://www.sandiegosnap.org website. Bishop Brom is a hypocrite, a liar, and continues to paddle down that river called denial.

I hope the Dark One creates a special level of hell just for these sickos.

--Lapsed Catholic (that title doesn’t even begin to describe my disgust)

Read on:

San Diego - Bishop Robert Brom was accused of coercing a student into a sexual relationship at a seminary in Minnesota, where he once was rector and later headed the Diocese of Duluth. Church officials acknowledged multiple settlements to seminarians as a result of abuse allegations involving other members of the hierarchy and priests but deny the validity of the claims. Brom paid a confidential settlement (reported to be $85,000.00) to his accuser, who agreed to retract his claim against Brom. Brom has stated the pay out was “minimal insurance” to help his accuser of getting on with his life. The deal was reached in 1993 but didn’t become public until this spring. Bishop Brom continues to deny wrongdoing and remains on the job. 

(From the sandiegosnap.org webpage--thank you!)

The Catholic Church has had long history of obstructing the truth, not informing its membership of important data, and deflecting questions when asked.

The church never informed me that it wasn’t until the 11th or 12th century that it required its ‘priests’ not to marry (I learned this through secular media).
When you stop up a normal human desire, it’s bound to emerge sompeplace else (e.g. sexual abuse of children and women). 

Christ (or Paul) called all believers a ‘royal priesthood; he didn’t separate us into classes.  Somewhere in the New Testament it say that bishops
should be happily married.  By extenuation, this should apply to all other clergy.

All of this leads to misqued relationships relationships, I believe, among our Creator, the clergy, and those it ‘serves?’

John F.

1)
The S.D. diocese has plenty of real estate it could sell thus helping San Diego by making that mass of property finally paying for it’s services paying taxes.
2)
Parents worried about their parish schools going under should instead of worrying about their children in schools where child molesters are possibly teaching their children.
Public schools are safer from child molesters and at least teach science not something out of someone little finger.

Since the Bishop is giving us all great lip service.....perhaps a simple solution is in order.
Leverage property in each parish equally, to attain the settlement monies, then the properties are in essence sold to the parishes for paying off the mortgaged property, then each parish would own their own parish buildings and Tax ID number, and be protected in the future as each parish would have been bought for by the parish, and if they don’t like what the church is doing, they can remove the church from diocese allowing them to have some control in their investment and the priests that serve. The reason this isn’t done is because it’s about the money, and the secrets, and having control over others. The Bishop is running for cover, and is afraid of the past sexual encounters he had from coming to light, as it might just be what runs him out of town on a rail.

I am glad the Bishop has decided to declare bankruptcy.  I find it amusing how many other Christians are still bitter and hateful towards the Catholic Church.  You would think this is still the 1500s.  If you don’t want to be a Catholic, you don’t have to.  The Church is not the all-powerful entity it once used to be.  Land is one of the few things it has left and you will find Christians who came to the US during the colony days have far more land in certain parts of the country (Anglicans, Episcopalians, Quakers, Lutherans).  The Church is land-rich and cash poor with declining membership and declining birth rates among its members.

I feel badly for the victims, but this is typical of anything like this where lawyers get involved and they try to find an “institution” or “company” or “government” to sue for it.  How about these people criminally prosecute those who actually molested them?  I guess they can’t since a lot of the offenders are dead.  And so are a lot of the Church’s administrators who unfortunately turned a blind eye.  I’d rather them target the inviduals for justice rather than target a non-unified institution that is constantly changing.  If you worked for, let’s say, Boeing 30 years ago and your boss was mean to you, then you find out a lot of other Boeing employees all had the same problems 30 years ago, would you go sue Boeing for all the money you can get for emotional abuse?  Probably not, it doesn’t make a lot of sense and neither does this.  The only thing that keeps it going is this unfounded hatred of the Catholic Church that many Christians possess.  Please move on with your lives; the molesters and scumbags are everywhere and they are only laughing as these trial lawyers suck money from institutions that contribute to the public good while they continually get away free.

I’m glad to see so many people are concerned about the abuse of adolescents by homosexual Catholic priests. Perhaps, one day, we will start caring as much as, and give as much media coverage to, victims of abuse by Protestant and Unitarian ministers, rabbis, imams, and gurus; abuse that, according to their own sources, is much worse than that in the Catholic Church. For that matter, perhaps we could care as much about those abused by public schools teachers, which, according to a Hofstra University study, is 100 times worse than the Catholic Church.

I’m certain that the focus on the Catholic Church has nothing to do with any anti-Catholic bias which occurs amongst pro-abortion public radio listeners, the comment about the Evil Empire notwithstanding.

I hope that the money helps in the process of healing. For me personally, I can’t see how it can, but that’s just me. For me, I have found that practicing my faith by forgiving those who hurt me to be much more productive.

Unfortunately, John F. has some false information which needs to be set straight. The discipline of priestly celibacy, which is not a doctrine of the Catholic Church, became the rule in the Latin Rite in 1044. In other rites of the Catholic Church, specifically Eastern rites, married men are still allowed to become priests, though priests, once ordained, cannot remarry. Even in the Latin rite, some Protestant minister who convert are allowed to become priests, but only by papal dispensation. By the way, I received all of that information from the Catholic Encyclopedia, which, last time I checked, was not a “secular source.”

That all being said, priestly celibacy has been the norm not the exception throughout the Church’s history. St. Paul said that it would be better if all called to the ministry would be single so that they can more fully dedicate themselves to service of God and not be split in their attentions between God and their wives. The Canon from the first Nicene council (351 AD) mentions the importance of supporting celibate priests, showing that priestly, while not the rule, was the norm. I’m afraid that John F.’s favorite “secular source” probably didn’t mention any of that.

John F., unfortunately, succumbs to the prejudice that those who aren’t involved in sexual relationships are somehow more likely to be predisposed to perversion. Police statistics don’t bare that out. Most child molesters are married men. They usually molest someone within their own families. Now, based on these facts, I could claim that people should not have sexual relationships and live as hermits because celibate people are less likely to be child molesters, but I would be committing the same post hoc fallacy that poor John F. is committing.

Seeing as married men, including those are in Protestant and Unitarian ministry, are more culpable in sexual abuse of minors, it behooves John F. and others to remember what the real issue is and not succomb to red herrings.