RICO

R.I.C.O.

These initials stand for a Federal Law in the USA named:

“Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.”

RICO has been useful in prosecuting organized crime and, so experts think, could come into play in the Pennsylvania Child Abuse case.

So far only Civil Suits have been launched against the Roman Catholic Church which have resulted in billions of dollars in settlements for victims of abuse.

No Criminal charges have yet been filed, listing the institution of the Roman Catholic Church as defendant.

Until the perpetrators of these sex-crimes and those who aid and abet them serve some serious jail time, nothing will change.

Some Priests will continue to rape children, some Bishops will continue to hide the facts,

the R.C. Church, one of the richest organizations in the world, will pay “settlements” to the victims and the broken spirit of the victims will remain broken.

Perpetrators as well as those who assist in hiding these crimes, thereby preventing proper prosecution of all involved, must be held criminally liable under the “aiding and abetting” provision of all criminal law.

There is now a push for an amendment to RICO which would allow Federal Authorities to start full scale, nation wide investigation into all systematic cases of rape and other sexual violence and against the subsequent cover-up by the Roman Catholic Church.

The number of documented Priest-Abusers who were simply transferred to other Dioceses is too large to be listed here.

Only if charges against the R.C.Church as an institution could be successfully prosecuted and leading members who enabled or actually arranged such transfers were incarcerated in Federal Institution could some headway be made in the effort to eradicate or at least reduce the number of these crimes.
While Pope Franciscus ( am man I respect and feel sorry for) talks about the need to "spare no effort" to root out predator priests and "church cover-up", he has yet to indicate his preparedness to publicly name and sanction offending Bishops and thereby put an end to the criminal actions of those high ranking church officials.

Why do prosecutors and elected officials hesitate to bring such charges?

Because they fear a backlash from the Church and its fanatical non-thinking members at the polls.

Bertsravels

is awaiting further News.