Posted on 07/17/2002 6:58:26 AM PDT by Polycarp
Wednesday, July 17, 2002
SUFFER THE CHILDREN
Sex scandal death knell for Church?
Catholics take matters into own hands after Bishops' 'band-aid' solution
By Toby Westerman
© 2002 International News Analysis Today
As the crisis of confidence grows in the scandal-ridden American Catholic Church, many in the laity and clergy are skeptical that Church hierarchy will take effective corrective action and are moving toward reforming the institution from the grass-roots level.
According to long-time observers of the Church, June's conference of bishops arrived at no real solution to the decades-long problem of clerical abuse, providing only vague reassurances and a "charter" on abuse to a thoroughly disgusted nation.
The "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People" promises in its preamble: "We reach out to those who suffer. We apologize to them and offer our help for the future." The body of the charter guarantees that child abuse will be reported and the faithful supported in their grief.
"If they [the bishops] think they've solved the underlying problem, they're deluding nobody but themselves," declared the Rev. Charles Fiore, a veteran of the struggle to expel abusers from the Catholic priesthood.
Fiore, a Catholic priest for 42 years, has fought the homosexual influence in the clergy almost from the date of his ordination. With degrees in philosophy and theology, as well as clinical training at Menninger's and the State Hospital in Topeka, Kan., Fiore has both condemned the actions of homosexual priests and counseled the victims of their abuse.
The solutions offered by the bishops were nothing but a "band-aid applied to the real problem of the pandemic corruption of the Church in the United States," Fiore declared, adding that the bishops gave no evidence of "an intention of addressing the skeletons in their own episcopal closets."
The charter itself remains voluntary until the Vatican gives its approval and may, in fact, never have the force of law. Negotiations over the charter may take years, and the American bishops have for decades ignored Vatican directives they found to be objectionable.
While allowing some priests to go behind bars, American Catholic bishops have a firm track record of protecting their brother bishops, even under the most adverse circumstances.
The Catholic reform group Roman Catholic Faithful, or RCF, closely follows the continuing careers of disgraced bishops and, among many similar instances, has noted the following:
Currently, Bernard Cardinal Law, Roger Cardinal Mahony and Edward Cardinal Egan are among the top Church officials under legal and media scrutiny for their handling – or mishandling – of child-abuse cases in their jurisdictions.
Roman Catholic Faithful, founded in 1996 by Stephen Brady and located in Petersburg, Ill., has devoted itself to bringing to account priests and bishops for their moral outrages and criminal activity. By 1999, Ryan resigned under pressure initiated by RCF, while not admitting any guilt.
Brady's group also has brought to the public's attention a priest-oriented international homosexual Internet site called St. Sebastian's Angels, which continues to operate at various Web locations.
Brady's activities have earned him the enmity of the homosexual community.
One individual with ties to the Catholic homosexual group Dignity, as well as St. Sebastian's Angels, published Brady's private home address and phone number on the Internet, referred to RCF as a "hate group," described Brady as motivated by "evil purposes" and labeled him as a "perpetrator."
In another incident, which was reported to the FBI, Brady learned from a second-hand source that an e-mail message was circulating on the Internet stating that someone has placed a "contract" out for Brady's assassination.
Murder tied to priests' club?
While the threats against Brady are unsettling, there are indications that those who delve too deeply into the connection between clerical homosexuality and child abuse – finding perversion slipping into an abyss of satanic ritual – may pay for their curiosity with their lives.
In the late 1980s, two young Chicago private investigators, Bill Callaghan and Hank Adema, agreed to assist a "friend of a friend," whose child had been molested by a priest of the Chicago Archdiocese.
The parents of the abused child sought help after the Archdiocese under Joseph Cardinal Bernardin threatened to counter-sue following their original allegations. Before the scandal of clerical child abuse came to the public's attention through the efforts of the mass media, it was common practice for a diocese to file a libel suit against parents who charged diocesan clergy with abusive behavior.
As their investigation into the background of the abusive priest proceeded, Callaghan and Adema discovered the existence of a homoerotic group, made up mostly of priests, calling itself The Boys' Club.
During their inquiry into the membership and activities of The Boys' Club, a woman identifying herself as the girlfriend of a murdered church organist contacted the investigators and stated that she had information that would be useful to them.
The woman's friend was one Frank Pellegrini, once the organist and choir director at All Saints-St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church on Chicago's South Side. Pellegrini had also served as chair of the Sociology Department of Loyola University of Chicago.
According to the information obtained from the girlfriend, Pellegrini had a homosexual relationship with one of the priests involved in The Boys' Club, but was in the process of leaving the priest-lover and marrying her.
Before completely severing ties with the priest, however, Pellegrini discovered that The Boys' Club was involved with far more than homosexual relations. Tied closely with their sexual exploits was ritualistic satanic worship and the regular abuse of young children from low-income, ethnic families.
Pellegrini informed the Chicago Archdiocesan Chancery, and scheduled a meeting with one of the archdiocese's top officials.
The day before the meeting, Pellegrini was brutally murdered in his home, which showed no signs of forced entry.
Callaghan, who spoke with police personnel originally working on the case, stated that Pellegrini was found with his hands tied with barbed wire and had been stabbed repeatedly.
Even Pellegrini's dog was slashed, leaving it seriously wounded but alive.
In the opinion of police detective/profilers working on the case, the brutality and manner of the killing indicated that it was carried out either by a woman or a homosexual, Callaghan stated.
Pellegrini was stabbed 47 times – the same number of years he had lived.
Just after Pellegrini's body was discovered, and while police were still on the scene of the murder, police observed two unusual incidents, Callaghan reported.
The first involved the arrival of then-Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago – and one of the most powerful men in the American Catholic Church – Joseph Bernardin. Although there was never an indication that Bernardin met Pellegrini, he arrived at the murder scene and quizzed police personnel on the progress of the investigation.
Left unanswered was how Bernardin learned of the killing and why he should personally visit the scene of a relatively unimportant individual whom he had no reason to know.
The second incident involved Pellegrini's dog. As the police conducted their investigation at the scene, the dog remained quiet, still suffering from its wounds. When the dog saw priests come into the apartment, it suddenly became aggressive and barked wildly.
The Pellegrini murder occurred in 1984 and was "reopened" with federal funds in the early 1990s, but many of the investigation's informal police notes have been "lost," and important leads in the case have never been fully followed up, according to Callaghan. The Pellegrini case, at present, remains one of the many hundreds of unsolved Chicago murders.
Although Callaghan never met Pellegrini, nor participated in the original investigation, he and Adema found that whatever secrets the case entailed posed a direct threat to their own lives.
As Callaghan and Adema pressed on with their investigation on behalf of their client, they learned of a warning, which came through contacts in the Chicago Police Department.
Callaghan learned that mob informants had stated that a contract had been offered on his life, and on that of Adema, by an individual closely tied to the Pellegrini case.
Although no one in the local underworld was interested, there did exist the real possibility that the contract could be accepted by "a black or biker gang," Callaghan revealed.
The full extent of The Boys' Club influence in Chicago – and beyond – still remains unclear, as does the extent of ritual abuse associated with clerical assaults on children.
Hush money?
There is, however, ample evidence that ritual abuse does occur, and it is most obvious in the case of "Agnes."
In the opening pages of his best-selling book, "Windswept House," The Rev. Malachi Martin describes a satanic ritual carried out on a young girl. Although Martin used a degree of literary license in the description of the event, there is a real individual behind the story and an actual instance of satanic abuse.
"Agnes," a pseudonym for her actual name, met Fiore some years ago for assistance with spiritual guidance and counseling for the long-term effects of cult abuse she had suffered at age 11.
Agnes has consented to and passed several polygraph examinations and is now married with a family in a Southern city. She has made her accusations in sworn affidavits, written statements to Vatican officials and has directly confronted those whom she has accused.
Among those Agnes has implicated in the attack upon her was a young, rapidly advancing priest named Joseph Bernardin.
Agnes states that in the fall of 1957, in Greenville, S.C., with her father present, Bishop John Russell of the Charleston Archdiocese and his chancellor, Bernardin, raped her as part of a satanic ritual, which included, as a RCF report stated, "a perverted, sacrilegious use of a [consecrated] host."
According to Catholic teaching, a consecrated host is the true and total body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ, Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.
Agnes also became acquainted with Steven Cook, another individual who accused Bernardin of abuse. Cook accused Bernardin of coercing him into homosexual acts while he was a seminarian and Bernardin was archbishop in Cincinnati, Ohio.
While the media consistently have reported that Cook "recanted" his accusation against Bernardin, Cook, who was dying of AIDS, simply stated that he could "no longer trust his memory."
Callaghan interviewed Cook as part of his own investigation, and verified that Cook did not "recant." He learned that the dying homosexual, formerly of very modest means, suddenly had developed considerable financial resources. Estimates of the value of the newly established estate range from $250,000 to several million. After Cook's death, the money was divided between his mother, his sister and his male lover.
Bernardin, who said he had never met Cook, also left the dying man a costly chalice, which Bernardin had used to offer Mass in Cook's Philadelphia apartment. In addition to Cook and Bernardin, Cook's homosexual lover was also in attendance at the Mass. Cook made no secret of his homosexuality, and there is no indication that Cook would have hidden the identity of his male lover.
Giving Holy Communion under such circumstances, according to traditional Catholic teaching, constitutes sacrilege.
Bernardin also was implicated in an alleged incident of abuse perpetrated against seminarians attending the Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary in Winona, Minn., in the 1980s.
According to a Boston Globe report, Bernardin, along with several "top prelates," were accused of "coercing seminarians at Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary … into having sex."
The rector of the seminary, the Rev. Robert H. Brom, was also implicated in the sex-abuse charges. At the time the seminarian made his allegations, Brom served as Bishop of Duluth, Minn. Brom now is bishop of San Diego, Calif.
The Winona seminarian later retracted his charges, but he received a settlement payment of "less than $100,000," according to the Globe report, which quoted Archbishop Roger L. Schwietz, of Anchorage, successor to Brom as bishop of Duluth.
The circumstances of the seminarian's retraction, however, recently have come into question.
In a sworn affidavit, Mark Brooks, a friend of the seminarian who received the settlement payment, claims that the retraction of the charges against the bishops is false, according to a report in the San Diego Union-Tribune. The retraction was issued, according to Brooks, because the seminarian "needed the money."
Brooks' affidavit was filed in San Diego Superior Court in connection with a press investigation of abuse allegations against Brom.
In the mid-1980s, the Diocese of San Diego settled a lawsuit initiated by Brooks claiming abuse. The Diocese settled for an undisclosed sum.
Accountability to the laity
Confronted with constant scandal, and a sometimes callous, hostile clergy, many Catholics have lost their faith and left the Church.
Other Catholics, however, have banded together and are seeking to support the faithful clergy, while denying money to those elements that they feel are bent upon the destruction of the Catholic Church.
Michael J. Tario, who works closely with Wall Street traders, is leading a group called the Ad Hoc Committee for the Prevention of Clergy Sex Abuse.
Tario is suggesting that Catholics redirect – not boycott – contributions to the Church.
"Good Stewardship," said Tario, "is not just sending money to the chancery for a cover-up." Tario is urging Catholics to contribute only to Church organizations that use their funds for charitable purposes, rather than legal expenses and costly settlements.
Tario lives in the Chicago Archdiocese and personally knows parents whose children have been abused by archdiocesan clergy. Their callous treatment at the hands of the Archdiocese and a growing awareness of the extent of clerical abuse in the Chicago area and around the United States have compelled Tario to take action. Tario's group works closely with other organizations having similar goals across the nation.
The group is demanding that the Chicago Archdiocese implement four basic reforms:
Tario periodically cites a statement of Bishop William B. Friend of the Diocese of Shreveport, La., on the right of the laity to know where and how the money they contribute is spent. "The Church consists of the people, so the people ought to know what is going on," declared Friend, who was a banker before becoming a priest.
Chicago Archdiocesan Financial Director Tom Brennan claims, however, that Tario's group is having little impact. Brennan expressed his confidence that archdiocesan revenues would continue to flow, stating that "we're expecting growing revenues," according to a report from the Rome-based Zenit news agency.
Quizzically, Brennan also stated in the same report that "he has not yet seen hard numbers from the past six months."
Others dispute Brennan's claim of financial tranquility.
Tario cites reports from several of the wealthiest parishes in the Archdiocese where contributions have significantly fallen, with some estimates noting a drop by as much as 25 percent. The information confirms an earlier Business Week article documenting a steep decline in donations as well as an increased need for funds from a top-heavy, lay bureaucracy.
As Tario's campaign of redirected giving gains momentum, another ominous threat to the American Catholic Church's money supply is appearing on the horizon.
What one attorney terms the "unholy trinity of litigation" – liability, damages and "deep pockets" – may prove to be the most potent stimulus for reform and relief to a hard-pressed laity, since Church structures would no longer be able to support the abusers within its ranks.
The possibility of a poorer but more faithful Church does not appeal to all.
When Tario proposed a program of redirected giving to Francis Cardinal George of Chicago, the cardinal archbishop asked in response if Tario wanted the archdiocese to go back to an "immigrant Church," poor and struggling.
Many observers, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, are pressed to respond that, if necessary to gain a more faithful Church, the answer would be, "Amen."
Related stories:
Diocese 'reaching out' to homosexuals
'Gay' culture in Catholic Church grows
Catholics learning sex from Kinsey disciples
Confab pushes homosexuality in Church
Related special offer:
WND probe exposes 'gay' rights' secret agenda – How the homosexual activist movement has targeted America's children .
I.J. Toby Westerman, is a contributing reporter for WorldNetDaily and editor/publisher of International News Analysis Today.
Aeiou - Here's honesty: I don't hate anyone in this world (as my religion teaches)! But when several thousand teenage boys have been homosexually molested in the past couple of decades by Catholic priests, and the priesthood is filled with active homosexuals, many of whom are attracted to teenage boys, it's crazy to allow priests to be alone with children (particularly, as we've seen, boys). I'm a devout Catholic. But the Church can't have it both ways. If it wants the trust of parents, then stop stocking the priesthood with active homosexuals who are breaking their vows and endangering our boys. I don't hate even molesters (they need help). That doesn't mean they should have contact with our sons. They shouldn't. Christ said that to lead a child to sin was a horrible, horrible sin. Well, OUR Church has been effectively condoning thousands of such horrible sins for the past 20 years. Enough. I love the Catholic Church. But not enough to endanger my kids spiritual and sexual and physical growth.
Aeiou - The Boy Scouts had a severe problem with homosexual molestations of teenage boys for a long time. They implemented a policy where: 1) no avowed homosexual men are allowed; 2) kids can never be alone with one adult at any time and; 3) all scouts are warned in graphic terms about the dangers of homosexual molestation. The result - the incidence of homosexual molestation of Boy Scouts has dropped dramatically. The Boy Scouts put the welfare of kids FIRST (though they have been attacked relentlessly by homosexuals for doing so). The Catholic Church should adopt rules just like this. The Church has put the welfare of children LAST.
First I would like to tell you of my first hand experience with clergy molesting boys, Brothers in this case.
I attended Catholic grammer school in NE in the late 50's and early 60's, the teachers were Nuns. I then attended a Catholic HS in the late 60's, the teachers (with 80%+ being Brothers, the rest lay teachers. I was propositioned by my Chemistry teacher, during a one on one conference on my progress in his class. He got into an area where he was telling me how much he liked me, he liked me so much that he would let me "sit on my face, if you want to". Fortunatly I was so naive, It didn't occur to me that one man would do that with another, but it was very weird. He pulled the same stunt with my friends (he had a private 'conference' with each student). Later I learned that a number of his students took him up on his offer. There were also incidents with the Brother who led the school band, the boys he molested became the student band leaders (I know this from second hand information ( One of the boys involved later becaue the head of the gay student union at his college in the 70's). None of the students said anything to other adults, some didn't mention it to other kids until later.
The incident was creepy, much more so when I realized he was doing this with a lot of boys. Why didn't any of the boys say anything? Why didn't I say anything?
Simple, we were boys with no power and they were Brother, who would the other brothers and our parents believe? Would our friends think we were queer (the trem at the time) for even being approached about this? Who would our Moms and Dads believe?
If I spoke up I would be destroyed, that's what I thought. I have been told (brainwashed?) since I was a child, that the Catholic clergy was smarter than us, had a special relationship with God, were our moral mentors, heck they taught us our Catechism! They were always right, and holy and pious. I was told this by my parents and realtives and other adults (my community was 90% Catholic (Iriah and Italians).We were just teenagers, with no credibility.
They had the power and we didn't, End of Story. In this particulat school >10% of the Brothers were involved in molestation (based on first and second hand knowledge), molestation took place on school grounds ( both in the woods surrounding the school and in the school, after hours, and in the Brothers quarters). I have wondered over the years, what about the other brothers in the rectory? What did they know of their peer's behavior? How could they not know what was happening with the people they lived with for years? Our parents only saw them in controlled situations. The other brothers lived and ate and hung out with them, how could they NOT KNOW what was going on? If they knew and didn't go ballistic, I believe they are complicit in the molestation and are as guilty as the molesters.
Maybe somebody said something and it was covered up, I don't know. I do know that the criminal behavior and the damage it caused to some of my classmates was not stopped, and to the best of my knowledge no one was held accountable.
I can only imaging what it does to a boy to be drawn into this sort of sick behavior by someone you are supposed to be able to trust as much as your parents (I was warned about getting in cars with strangers, but never about catholic clergy). The guilt you would experience would be a killer. Maybe taking the money is the only way to get back at the person who is assulting you? Maybe it plays into to your belief that this is your fault, your the bad person not the clergyman.
If you were a devout, young catholic boy and were in that situation how would YOU react?
Part of my problem is that I'm largely unaware of all the nasty things being said by various people about various people. When I hear them, it upsets me.
Fr. Martin's work should be judged on its own. I used to know a little more than I now remember about it, but I remember that my conclusions in the past were that he writes some very interesting stories, but if one is to assert that they represent a thinly-disguised true story, then much of it is incredible to me.
"My concern is the 'generally-accepted facts' regarding Fr. Martin. It appears there have been many unsubstantiated rumors about Fr. Martin (including accusations of his having committed mortal sins) that have taken on the appearance of 'truth' because they have been repeated so many times. If a lie is repeated often enough, they will believe it, eh?"
That is precisely my point, which is why I have no ears to hear any accusations of private immorality by the late Fr. Martin.
But one needs to distinguish between unsubstantiated rumors of sin, and interpretation of substantiated public acts as sinful. Thus, if anyone is desiring to inform me of a rumor that Fr. Martin committed some act in private, I'm uninterested in knowing about it. But if someone says that something that he wrote and published constitutes sin, that isn't spreading an unsubstantiated rumor. It's interpreting a public act of a man. One ought to do so in charity, otherwise one may guilty of rash judgement. But that wouldn't be gossip.
For myself, I know of no rumors of sin about this priest, and have no opinion about the overall moral virtue or lack thereof of his writing.
As to sinkspur's comments about Fr. Martin's sanity, that isn't inherently uncharitable. If Fr. Martin showed clear signs in his behavior or his writing of increasing mental unbalance, it isn't sinful to gently note it, or suggest it. In fact, if Fr. Martin did things publicly that put him in an unfavorable light, then it could be a kindness to point out that he wasn't really responsible for them as a result of failing mental health in his old age. Context, of course, is everything.
"How credible does a work of fiction have to be, anyway?"
If it's just a good yarn, it only needs to be sufficiently credible to hold together internally as a good story. But, Fr. Martin's work has been cited, here in this thread, as "thinly-disguised fact". In that case, if that is how one wishes to present it, it must be very, very, very credible, considering the accusations made.
sitetest
For heaven's sake, the WANDERER and the NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER were talking about priestly pederasty in 1985, after Fr. Thomas Doyle gave his report to the bishops, which they promptly ignored.
Martin just struck me as a paranoid human being. David Gold of KLIF in Dallas would regularly interview him in the early and mid-90s, but finally stopped after Martin became increasingly incoherent in some of the things he said. I think he thought his novels were reality.
It's a criminological truism that women and homosexuals are far more violent (when spurred to action of this sort) than heterosexual males. Typical difference has to do with the number of wounds: women and homosexuals MORE, hetero men less.
A hetero man TYPICALLY will shoot only to kill and then stop shooting.
There are some exceptions, but they typically 'prove the rule' rather than disprove it.
Director of Rehab Center for Priests Suspended Over Sex Abuse Allegation
BOSTON — The director of a rehabilitation center for priests accused of molesting children has himself been suspended on sex allegations dating back more than 25 years.
The Rev. Robert Beale was placed on administrative leave Wednesday by the Archdiocese of Boston after church officials reviewed an allegation that Beale sexually abused a minor in the 1970s. Donna Morrissey, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese, said church officials found the accusation credible. She would not release any details.
Beale becomes the 18th priest in the archdiocese suspended since January, when the clergy sexual abuse scandal first erupted in Boston.
Victims of clergy abuse were outraged by the news that the director of Our Lady's Hall — a residential home where priests were supposed to be receiving treatment — has been accused of being a sexual offender himself.
"Clearly, there wasn't proper supervision for the priests who were staying there," said Philip Saviano, the New England director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
"If this father is someone who was a child molester himself, then you have to wonder how much supervision he was giving his colleagues at the time," Saviano said.
This is not the first time Our Lady's Hall has come under scrutiny.
In March, another priest, the Rev. Ronald Paquin, was accused in a lawsuit of molesting a teenage boy at Our Lady's Hall on numerous occasions after Paquin was sent there by the archdiocese in the early 1990s. Paquin had been removed from a Haverhill parish for allegedly molesting children. He is currently jailed awaiting trial on three counts of child rape.
The alleged victim told The Boston Globe that he visited Paquin at Our Lady's Hall several dozen times, and spent the night with him at least twice. The boy, who was 14 and 15 at the time, said other priests who were staying there never questioned his presence, even though he and Paquin always went to Paquin's bedroom.
Earlier this year, the archdiocese reclassified the Rev. Edward T. Kelley from counselor to client at the hall after the church received allegations that he, too, had molested children.
Beale could not be reached for comment Thursday. Two messages were left for him at Our Lady's Hall.
Morrissey said Beale will continue to receive his salary and benefits while the allegation is being investigated.
Beale, who was ordained in 1970, was assigned to several churches around the state before going to work at Our Lady's Hall about 20 years ago.
He also worked as a part-time chaplain at the Norfolk County jail in Dedham, where he ministered to John Salvi, a gunman who killed two women and wounded five other people in two Boston-area abortion clinics in 1994.
Beale is also a member of "The Singing Priests," a group of priests who perform show tunes and inspirational songs for charity.
Our Lady's Hall is located in an affluent section of Milton, a Boston suburb.
For years, residents of Milton thought the stately brick mansion set back from the road was a retreat house for alcoholic priests.
They were upset to learn in 1997 that Our Lady's Hall also was being used to house priests accused of sexually abusing children.
"We were notified by a resident who had young children and lived in very close proximity to Our Lady's Hall. They were very concerned," said Milton police Chief Kevin Mearn.
"I think a lot of people thought it was a retirement home for priests."
Mearn said he met with church officials, who told him they would stop sending accused sexual offenders to stay at the home.
Morrissey said there are no patients at the facility now.
People can believe whatever they want to believe.
But, basing an opinion of Bernardin solely on some of the flimsy stuff offered by RCF would be erroneous, IMO, especially the "satanic ritual" stuff.
Also, my opinion of Martin says nothing about the state of what was liklely a saintly soul. He just seemed a little nutty, that's all.
I've never heard a satisfactory answer from him as to why he left the priesthood. Would his superiors not let him write novels?
He was also a frequent guest of Art Bell--perhaps a better substantiation of your concerns than mere incoherence, which never bothers Art Bell...
He reminded me of an inverted Barry Goldwater in his later years: a former liberal, he became a rabid traditionalist.
Now is the time to air every scandal in the closet. Time to take out the trash. Let's get it all out there once and for all. And then...REBUILD OUR CHURCH!
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