Posted on 06/18/2004 10:42:18 PM PDT by Polycarp IV
Runaway priests hiding in plain sight
By Reese Dunklin/The Dallas Morning News
APIA, Samoa —
Frank! Frank!
About a dozen children circle around the Rev. Frank Klep after Mass on one sun-kissed Sunday. They chirp his name, trying to catch his eye as he begins handing out foil-wrapped candy. He calls them by name, too, beams and hugs some of them.
Few, if any, locals are aware that the friendly priest is a convicted child molester who has admitted abusing one boy and is wanted on more charges back in Australia. In 1998, his religious order placed him here in the South Pacific. Australian police can’t touch him now because their country has no extradition treaty with Samoa.
Neither he nor the church feels an obligation to tell anyone about all that.
"I'd prefer to just leave it," Father Klep said recently. "If I felt I was still at risk to their children, then I'd think differently. But I don't think I am at risk anymore."
His order, the Salesians of Don Bosco, has long moved priests accused of sexual abuse from country to country away from law enforcement and victims. Indeed, it is how many others in the Catholic Church have dealt with the problem, an 18-month, worldwide Dallas Morning News investigation has found.
The Salesians, one of the largest Catholic religious orders, concentrate on educating and housing some of the world’s most needy and vulnerable children. Yet influential Salesian officials have spoken out forcefully against cooperating with law enforcement agencies investigating sex abuse allegations.
"For me it would be a tragedy to reduce the role of a pastor to that of a cop," said Salesian Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez of Honduras, a leading candidate to succeed Pope John Paul II. "I'd be prepared to go to jail rather than harm one of my priests."
Salesian officials in Costa Rica and Chile are facing criminal complaints, accused of protecting priests who were shuffled across international borders. A judge in Chile is reviewing whether there is enough evidence to try a Salesian bishop on obstruction of justice charges, which would be the first such prosecution of a Catholic leader anywhere.
In the case of one priest from Peru, his superiors have ignored a church panel's 1995 demand that he have no contact with children, as well as Chicago police's subsequent request to question him. Salesians officials in Peru say they don’t know where he is, but The News found him working in Mexico — his fourth country he's been in since he was first accused of misconduct more than a decade ago.
Even the Rev. Pascual Chavez, before he became the Salesians' worldwide leader in Rome, kept an admitted molester in ministry in Mexico. After a judge dismissed criminal charges against the priest, he was reassigned to Africa. He’s returned to duty in Mexico but could not be reached for comment. Father Chavez declined to be interviewed.
One of Father Klep's alleged victims, himself a former Salesian seminarian, draws a painful conclusion about his old order:
"This is a corporate sin that they’re feasting in," he said. "It must be the attitude of the Salesians worldwide."
'Best of our ability'
Father Klep is living in exile in Samoa, "not a paradise or a tropical resort," according to his boss, the Rev. Ian Murdoch, the order’s leader in Australia and the South Pacific. The priest has no active ministry or unsupervised contact with children, Father Murdoch said, and is monitored to "the best of our ability."
"The Salesians as a community have done their best to respond to the allegations," he said before refusing to answer further questions.
But Father Klep enjoys his ministry on this tiny island nation. People here still respect their elders and honor the Sabbath. He's surrounded by a colorful, exotic landscape of orchids, poinsettias, and mango, banana and coconut trees. He has picturesque views of the blue Pacific waters and Mount Vaea.
"I have found a good measure of contentment," he said. "I'd be quite happy to stay here."
Father Klep's victims in Australia have tried unsuccessfully for years to have him removed from the priesthood. A church panel that recently investigated one abuse complaint asked the Salesians to consider suspending his ministry, but not even his admission in that case led to significant discipline.
"I made a mistake," Father Klep said in an interview, acknowledging that he touched one of his Australian students in the late 1970s. Two years ago, he wrote a letter to the former student, who is now an adult, and expressed his regret.
The priest’s penance was loss of his ceremonial title: "priest in charge" of the order’s offices near Apia, the Samoan capital. The former student said it wasn't enough. "Prison is the only punishment deserving of this man," he said. "All along the way he’s been protected, and no one seems to think it’s serious enough."
Druggings denied
The complaints against Father Klep date to the 1970s, when he worked at a boarding school north of Melbourne. At the time, Salesian College at Rupertswood was exclusively for boys, many who were from the farming communities in rural Victoria state.
The first boys came forward in about 1986, telling their parents that Father Klep had molested them. By then, they were young adults, and Father Klep was the school’s principal.
Three former students told The News that the abuse occurred when they went to Father Klep in the infirmary for pain medication or prescriptions. He sexually assaulted them, the students said, while they lay sick or after he had given them incapacitating drugs.
"I remember being wasted out the next day," said the former seminarian. He and the other former students spoke on condition they not be named.
About a dozen parents confronted the Salesians and the Archdiocese of Melbourne in a series of meetings. One of the parents, the former seminarian’s mother, said church leaders were dismissive. She recalled a Salesian leader telling her: "This all happened very long ago. It has no foundation."
But when her husband threatened to sue, she said, within days Father Klep was pulled from the job.
Father Klep denied knowing about any of the complaints or druggin anyone. He said his supervisor described the departure as a routine sabbatical. "Maybe he was being charitable to me," the priest said.
The Salesians sent him overseas, first to an order facility in Rome for a few months, then to the United States. He enrolled in late 1987 at Fordham University, a private Catholic school near the Salesians' offices in New York City, and pursued a master’s degree. While studying, he also helped at Masses in the area, he said.
Shortly after he graduated in early 1989, Father Klep returned to Australia. Within a few years, he was the top official at a youth center and hostel in a blue-collar suburb of Melbourne.
The mother of the former seminarian said she and the other parents were horrified. She complained in writing to the Salesians in 1992 and drew a scolding from the order’s regional leader at the time, the Rev. Julian Fox. She dropped her protests.
"I just tried to do the right thing, but we never got anywhere," she said. "They absolutely had it covered like the Mafia."
Father Fox said in an interview this month that he investigated but couldn’t remember what he found because the details were "history under a bridge." Father Fox also has been accused of sexual abuse while working at the boarding school in the 1970s and 1980s. He, too, was transferred abroad — to Fiji for several years and recently to the order's Rome headquarters. He said a church review had exonerated him; advocates for his accuser said the Salesians paid a settlement.
Father Fox said a church review had exonerated him. "That's in the past. I'm not keen to be trolling through all of that again," he said, cutting off the interview.
Going to police
Starting in 1993, more young men alleged that Father Klep had abused them at the school. But these former students went to authorities.
First, two brothers complained to Victoria state police, whose area includes Melbourne. Officers filed four charges of indecent assault against Father Klep, dating to 1976 and 1979.
"He forced himself on them," said Senior Sgt. Steve Iddles, the prosecutor in the case. "Lie down and do as I tell you."
Father Klep denied touching the brothers. He accused them of fabricating much of their story to get money from the Salesians. He pleaded not guilty, and the Salesians left him on duty throughout his proceedings in 1994.
"At one stage [in the trial], my defense asked them pertinent questions, and one of them shed a few tears," he said recently. "I thought they were crocodile tears."
The judge declared Father Klep guilty and sentenced him to nine months of community service. The priest worked off his sentence gardening at nursing homes.
One of the brothers said he was let down by the criminal justice system. "When a man is charged on four counts and convicted on four counts and doesn’t go to jail," he said, "you have to wonder what’s behind it."
Not long after Father Klep finished his sentence in early 1996, another former student reported to Victoria police that in 1976 the priest had fondled him and performed oral sex on him. Detectives questioned and fingerprinted Father Klep, but did not arrest him.
Once again, Father Klep denied the allegations and accused the former student of trying to get money. The possibility of being prosecuted a second time worried him, though, he said.
So in 1998, with the investigation unresolved, he readily accepted a reassignment to Samoa. He said the move was the suggestion of his boss at the time, the Rev. John Murphy.
"I think he [Father Murphy] realized that I'd probably feel a bit more comfortable being removed from the situation there," Father Klep said. "I was happy enough to go."
Father Murphy, who's now assigned to Samoa as well, said the priest's account was "not altogether true" but wouldn't elaborate. He referred questions to Father Murdoch, who declined to comment.
Later in 1998, police sought to question Father Klep again and discovered that he had left for Samoa. They charged him with five counts of indecent assault and issued a nationwide arrest warrant.
"In hindsight, it'd been better if we charged him on the day [he was questioned in 1996]," said Investigator John Raglus, one of the Victoria officers now assigned to the case. He said he couldn't explain why it took authorities more than two years to file charges.
Case files show that Australian Federal Police were supposed to contact Samoan authorities on behalf of Victoria, according to the detective. But two officials in the Samoan government said the Australians told them nothing about Father Klep.
"I had no idea,"said Samoa Assistant Attorney General Raymond Schuster. Australian Federal Police would not answer written questions about the matter.
For some, life goes on
Beyond the reach of police and church discipline, Father Klep has worked freely.
He is the top financial official at the Moamoa Theological College, a two-story colonial-style house where seminarians and lay religious teachers train and reside. He helps during Mass at St. Anthony Church, one of the area’s oldest and more prestigious, and at the nearby Salesian schools.
For a time, he supervised the Rev. John "Jack" Ayers, who was accused of raping a student at the Rupertswood boarding school in the 1960s. The Salesians paid the accuser a settlement in 2000, according to documents The News obtained. Father Ayers, who refused to comment, lives a few doors from Father Klep at the college.
Samoa's top Catholic, Archbishop Alapati Mataeliga, said he was startled to learn about both priests' pasts. He said the Salesians should not have kept the details from him.
"I think we have to do something about it; justice has to be served," said Archbishop Mataeliga, who became leader of the archdiocese last year. "Samoa should not be a place where they send priests like that."
But the archbishop changed his mind after speaking with the Salesians. He said Father Klep told him what happened was an accident. And he discussed Father Ayers with Father Murphy.
"Although these incidents happened with these two priests, they have dealt with it themselves and with their congregation," the archbishop's secretary wrote in a letter. "They are valid and allowed to work in our archdiocese, and we are grateful for their services and hard work up to this point."
The Company of teens
Upstairs, in the theological college's kitchen, Father Klep sat at a table and explained that when he gave candy to children after Mass the previous day, it was a spontaneous gesture.He still enjoys "young people's company," he said, but limits his contact mostly to adults.
Downstairs, a group of teenage boys lounged on concrete steps, waiting for Father Klep. One young man said he met Father Klep this spring when the priest pulled up at a bus stop where he was standing and offered him a ride. At the end of the short drive, Father Klep gave him some cash and invited him to church.
Since then, the 19-year-old said, Father Klep has "come to where I hang out in the evenings" and offered him small jobs around the college.
Also waiting on the steps was a 14-year-old who said he has known Father Klep for about a year and a 13-year-old buddy he said the priest wanted to meet.
The 14-year-old said Father Klep has given him spending money and regularly helped him with schoolwork alone in the priest's bedroom.
"He says to me, 'Any day I want help, I come to Father Frank's home,'" said the boy, who had a thin adolescent mustache and a shy demeanor.
Father Klep has even paid his tuition to Chanel College, a Catholic school near the priest's home, he said.
"He said to me, 'You are my best friend.'"
Staff writers Brendan M. Case in Mexico City and special contributor Andrew Fa’asau in Apia contributed to this report.
Thanks :)
It didn't. Communists began infiltrating the seminaries in the 1930's.
"Communists began infiltrating the seminaries in the 1930's."
Godless Communists, or "Liberation Theology" Communists, or both? I'm serious, not being sarcastic. This is something about which I'd like to know more.
The damn Commies are still around, everywhere, it was amazing to see them crawl out of the woodwork to join their new friends, the Islamofacists.
Amazing story there!
Is there a difference? They wish to destroy the Church. I don't have most of the details, you're better off asking a Catholic. I'm just an interested bystander.
The Catholic Church was just one of many institutions infiltrated by Communists in the early 20th century.
You might want to Google the terms-- Gramsci "Catholic Church" infiltration
Antonio Gramsci, an Italian Communist Party Leader of the time, is who I consider the father of Neocommunism. He differed with Lenin and Marx, for example in the area of religion: he believed that you can't legislate religion out of the public sphere -- you must destroy it from within. Same with all of our American institutions. Universities, schools, foundations, trusts. He's the father of our fifth column.
You are right. These are the acts of a predatory homosexual setting up his next generation of victims.
St. John Christostom, I believe.
More clear evidence that the hiarchial form and authoritativeness of the Roman church was rightly abandoned by Calvin and most Protestants since.
Following the biblical model for church government doesn't allow for the unaccountable "mafia" described in the article to exist.
now now. They have their philosophy and traditions that trump the biblical teachings, you know.. What was it they said when this hit Boston - just a matter of a problem with the American Catholic Church... Some of us out here knew better from having heard about the homos in Europe since the 1980s. Deny, handwring and cover up. When you're all done here, you can read the 3 or 4 stories posted about the downplaying of the inquisitions too. If anyone over there ever stands up, tells the truth and takes some responsibility to once and for all reform that mess, I'll fall over. And I'm sorry for all my good Catholic friends having to go through this stuff. If their clergy could follow scripture, as you said, this mess wouldn't exist.
"He's the father of our fifth column."
I had heard of him, but now I see who is as, you put it very nicely. Thanks!
That's interesting.
Hokay, I've done some reading. The question is this: Is this newest revelation and (hopeful) cleansing part of the 3rd vision at Fatima?
Off to read more.
A few months ago I did read he was a favorite of the Vatican. But this was just one article and I'll certainly admit it's not very accurate phraseology. I'm not going to pretend I know more than you about the Catholic Church and the Vatican.
Well, I don't subscribe to the NCR, but I read John Allen weekly. He's the best reporter at the Vatican, bar none. And, his book on the "Next Conclave" is based on interviews with Cardinals (extensive interviews) and scuttlebutt in the Vatican.
He's got the cardinals divided into four groups, each representative of a particular faction.
Predicting who the next Pope will be, of course, is a crap shoot. But Allen's pretty good, knows lots of people, and gets interviews nobody else gets. He's progressive, of course, or he wouldn't work for NCR, but he does a good job at keeping a balance.
When he says that Madriaga is an "up-and-comer", you can believe he is, just as Arinze gets glowing reviews from Allen.
My own prediction is that an Italian will be the next Pope, to get the Church back in shape administratively and internally.
Scola is my choice (I forget where he is, but he is in an archdiocese, possibly Vienna).
PRAYERS
Yeah, sure. Authoritative, hierarchical form has prevented Catholicism from falling into apostacy on contraception the way most protestants have. At which Calvin would turn over in his grave.
No, if anyone ever convinced me Catholicism was inherently in error, they'd make of me an atheist, not a Calvinist.
Our former priest was given charge of our parish with our bishop knowing full well that he had molested children in New York in the past. The bishop's only safeguard was to assign a priest from the neighboring parish to live in the same house and that priest was rarely there. Before he came to our parish they sent him to Africa. These orders are following the same MO as our bishops did until the public scandal.
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