The Holy Spirit acts in truly wonderful ways ... albeit via the excellent reporting from the Dallas News.
Catholic Ping - let me know if you want on/off this list
Posted on 06/23/2004 1:35:44 PM PDT by valkyrieanne
Government moves to deport fugitive priest 02:11 PM CDT on Wednesday, June 23, 2004 By REESE DUNKLIN / The Dallas Morning News
The Samoan government, prompted by a Dallas Morning News investigation, is moving to deport a fugitive Catholic priest because he failed to disclose his conviction in a previous child molestation case when entering the country.
The priest's superiors in the Salesians of Don Bosco religious order also face an immigration inquiry because they, too, failed to make the same disclosures, said Auseuga Poloma Komiti, the senior adviser to Samoa's prime minister and cabinet.
Samoan authorities will serve the Rev. Frank Klep a deportation order Wednesday afternoon Dallas time that gives him three days to leave voluntarily or seek an appeal, said Mr. Komiti.
If he goes without a fight or loses an appeal, he'll be forced back to Australia, where he is the subject of a nationwide arrest warrant on five indecent assault charges. Samoan officials said they would coordinate Father Klep's return with Australian authorities.
"We can't help but think what was foremost was to have Father Klep evade the law by assigning him overseas," said Auseuga Poloma Komiti, the senior adviser to Samoa's prime minister and cabinet. "They were not thinking or giving two hoots about the children of this country."
Father Klep moved to the South Pacific island nation in early 1998 while he was a target of a criminal abuse investigation in the Australian state of Victoria. He told The News his Salesians superior at the time suggested the reassignment because "I think he realized that I'd probably feel a bit more comfortable being removed from the situation there" in Australia.
The superior, the Rev. John Murphy, has said the priest's version of events was "not altogether true," but declined to elaborate. The Salesians' present leader for Australia and the South Pacific, the Rev. Ian Murdoch, also has refused to discuss Father Klep's move.
But in a written statement earlier this week, Father Murdoch said the Salesians have not moved priests accused of sexual abuse from country to country "for the purpose of shielding them" from police. He said that the Salesians "have co-operated, and will certainly continue to cooperate, with any law enforcement agency."
Father Murdoch also continued to insist that Father Klep has no contact or ministry with children. But The News observed and photographed him handing candy to children after a Sunday Mass and interviewed teenage boys who said Father Klep had regular interaction with them - from giving them money to tutoring one of them alone in his bedroom.
When Father Klep first arrived in Samoa, he was required to fill out immigration papers stating whether he had any criminal convictions, Mr. Komiti said. But, he added, Father Klep "did not state anything."
In 1994, Father Klep was convicted on four charges in the assaults of two former students at a Salesians boarding school outside Melbourne during the 1970s. After he finished his sentence of community service, he came under investigation again. He was questioned and fingerprinted in 1996 but not arrested. While the case lingered, he moved to Samoa.
Later in 1998, Victoria police filed five additional charges against him and issued an arrest warrant but did not seek extradition. Victoria officials previously told The News that Australia had no formal treaty with Samoa agreeing to the exchange of fugitives.
However, Australian federal authorities this week told The News that Victoria police have never asked them for help. They said they could have sought Father Klep's return even if the two countries did not have an extradition treaty. Victoria police said the case is under review and declined further comment.
Beyond Father Klep, the Samoan government is investigating whether the Salesians had a legal obligation under immigration laws to report Father Klep's criminal record when they sponsored his move to Samoa. If they did, Salesian officials could face penalties including fines or expulsion as well, said Mr. Komiti.
But aside from a legal mandate, Mr. Komiti said, "There was a moral imperative to do so. We were disappointed. We have this feeling of being betrayed."
Victoria police have not answered questions from The News about whether they would investigate the Salesians' role in Father Klep's departure to Samoa. The Salesians apparently did not tell Samoa's top Catholic leader about Father Klep's 1998 criminal warrant, either.
Archbishop Alapati Mataeliga's secretary told The News that Father Murdoch had informed local church leaders about the 1994 conviction, but did not fully divulge details of the 1998 charges.
"My recollection of our conversation is that he mentioned something like, that they were not in possession of any warrant of arrest, or some wording like that," said the archbishop's secretary, Puletini M. Tuala.
Mr. Tuala said the archbishop was reconsidering his previous decision to let Father Klep remain in Samoa. The archbishop had told Samoan and Australian reporters that he might force Father Klep out of his archdiocese within a day or two.
Two weeks ago, however, the archbishop had a much different tone. His secretary wrote in a letter to The News that the archbishop was satisfied after speaking to the Salesians and Father Klep, who admitted abusing one boy but called the incident an accident. The archbishop also decided that a second Salesian priest who was moved to the island despite an abuse case in Australia could remain.
The Salesians paid the Rev. Jack Ayers' accuser a settlement, according to documents The News obtained. "Although these incidents happened with these two priests, they have dealt with it themselves and with their congregation," Mr. Tuala 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 Samoan government is also investigating Father Ayers' entry into Samoa, Mr. Komiti said.
The Holy Spirit acts in truly wonderful ways ... albeit via the excellent reporting from the Dallas News.
Catholic Ping - let me know if you want on/off this list
The lack of accountability by the hierarchy and religious superiors and the wink-and-a-nod attitude by many of them toward each other's actions is the real scandal.
You, "father" are OUT OF HERE!!!
You, "father" are OUT OF HERE!!!
Too bad we don't have the will to deport the many preachers of "the religion of peace" who are part of the Fifth Column in this country.
Some wish His/Her time frame could have been pushed up a few decades.
Like opening up Pandora's box.
We don't have the authority.
To where would you deport American citizens?
I could be mistaken, but I don't think that all of them are citizens.
paradise?
I'm sure John Ashcroft has some ideas on the subject.
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