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.
I agree, they are. But the facts include that THOUSDANDS of teenage boys have been molested, that the Church is overrun by active homosexuals, that our children are not being taught traditional Catholic sexual morality, that the MAJORITY of bishops have moved homosexual priest molesters from parish to parish, that four BISHOPS have had to resign for their own homosexual activities, AND THAT THE WELFARE OF CHILDREN IN OUR CHURCH HAS BEEN A LAST-LAST-LAST PRIORITY OVER THE PAST 20 YEARS. If you have a car, it only takes a problem in one part of the motor to render the entire car inoperable. In the Church's case, it has a giant spot of evil on its vestments that render the whole thing unclean and unholy.
Friend, if you don't wish to join in the accusation the late Cardinal Bernadin of rape and satanic ritual, I accept that. But it is you who needs to re-read all that has transpired.
You originally responded to one of my posts:
"To: sitetest
"'If you have no proof, then perhaps you could refrain from offering your entirely unsubstantiated opinion, which essentially calls a deceased cardinal of the Catholic Church the leader of a satanic cult.'
"Sadly, the circumstantial evidence against Bernadin seems overwhelming. Not proof, but enough for any Catholic to hold grave doubts about him. Combined with so numerous teenage boy homosexual molestations all over the country, we can only cry and vow to fight."
"56 posted on 7/17/02 7:26 PM Eastern by yendu bwam"
As you can see, you actually quoted me referring to the accusation of rape and satanic ritual. If you've read some of my previous posts, you can see that my reference to "leader of a satanic cult" clearly refers to the most salacious charges in the original article, that of rape and satanic ritual. You then said, "Sadly, the circumstantial evidence against Bernadin seems overwhelming."
If you didn't mean your statement as affirming the accusation that I was discussing, then I'm happy.
It was your apparent endorsement of that charge on which I was focusing when you brought in the other bishops.
I still don't think there is enough evidence to think even that the cardinal was involved directly in personal immorality. But it would please me if at least you were to refrain from giving credence from the worst of the charges.
"Look - I have been lied to repeatedly and constantly by my own bishop, and every other 'leader' in this Church."
We all have, yendu. Yet, we can't forget to act in charity. And part of acting in charity is giving the benefit of the doubt. Where there is proof of wrongdoing, let 'em have it. But where there is no proof, if we don't give the benefit of the doubt, we could be wrongfully harming the reputation of an innocent person.
sitetest
I apologize, sitetest. I see what happened, and I should have been more careful. I didn't think Bernadin was involved in satanic ritual. Again, my apologies.
"Honestly, I have to give RCF a lot of credit."
Me, too. And where they're doing hero's work, they ought to be praised. But we oughtn't be afraid of offering criticism when they aren't.
To my naive, foolish eyes, it almost appears as if because the folks at RCF considered Cardinal Bernadin beyond the pale theologically, they would like to hang all this personal immorality stuff, including rape and satanic ritual, on him. That's not right.
If there really is evidence, post it. But an assertion isn't an argument. An allegation doesn't take the place of proof.
And without proof, it's nothing but gossip.
And that isn't very Catholic.
sitetest
You are right. Yet everytime I have done so, I have been stung by proven revelations I thought not possible. Yet you are still right.
That sort of thing can happen easily. Apology accepted.
And I still think you're wrong to come to the other conclusions about Cardinal Bernadin. ;-)
Not that they might not turn out to be true. *sigh*
sitetest
"'We all have, yendu. Yet, we can't forget to act in charity. And part of acting in charity is giving the benefit of the doubt.'
"You are right. Yet everytime I have done so, I have been stung by proven revelations I thought not possible. Yet you are still right."
You're right, too. We have been stung over and over. It has been an unspeakable horror.
But on the Last Day, when we stand in judgement, and the Judge points out that in giving the benefit of the doubt, in acting charitably toward others, we were sometimes fooled by evil-doers, what do you think will be His judgement of us for that?
sitetest
They would only be the latest. Read any series of Papal letters on any particular topic over a period of 500 years.
Guess why the Pope(s) keep saying the same thing over and over and over again.
The French, the Germans, the English, the Spanish, and now the Americans.
Except OUR disobedient brats are more EXPENSIVE (and costly, too) than THEIR disobedient brats.
I strongly disagree. In virtually every diocese in our country, teenage boys have been serially homosexually abused by priests (or bishops). In virtually every case, the Church used all its power and might to squelch accusations, to convince parents not to press legal charges, and ignored the pain of the children and parents involved. In virtually every case, the offending priests were moved INTO PLACES WHERE THEY STARTED MOLESTING TEENAGE BOYS AGAIN. In virtually every case, THE WELFARE OF THE CHILDREN WAS THE LAST PRIORITY. Seriously, aeiou, a bishop who moves a known teenage boy molester to another parish (as 2/3 of them have) does NOT have the welfare of kids uppermost in his mind.
A good point.
I'm sorry, aeiou. I personally think that's hopelessly naive. Only those who have been caught and proven to have been molested are being removed. But the Church overall is infested with ACTIVE homosexuals, many of whom are strongly sexually attracted to teenage boys. Unless the priests are separated from the boys, more boys will be molested. Not an iota of effort has been made to prevent these molestations. Actions are only going to be taken once a molestation has occurred, been reported, and proven to be true. I honestly don't trust the hierarchy of my Church AT ALL to take any preventive efforts. Further, absent strict oversight, they will find ways around the new accord they've all just signed for punishing proven offenders. I don't trust my Chruch leaders at all to deal with this problem effectively. They have an incomparable record of doing EVERYTHING in their power to avoid accountability, and to avoid taking the welfare of kids seriously. The ONLY, SINGLE, UNIQUE thing that has caused them to take any action at all is the revelations in the press and the outrage of the laity.
At the same time, if the story is true, WHAT was Bernardin DOING sniffing around a murder scene???
Bernardin's relationship to Pellegrini is not described.
Let's put this another way: does anyone you know run over to a murder scene and ask questions? Of the very small percentage of people who do such things, how many have no apparent relationship with the victim outside of social acquaintance?
This is certainly odd.
As to Cook's 'recanting;' it did not happen. Never. At least, not on the public record in unambiguous terms.
We also know (as does Toby Westerman, the article's author) that another priest who was involved with RCF was murdered, stabbed; no robbery was committed. No suspects, no leads, no nothing.
Lotta strange stuff out there.
"It is strange that these few bad priests were allowed to run amok like they did but I still say the vast majority of priests are very good. Thank God!"
But the harm they did was magnified 10-fold by deceitful bishops. There would hardly be a ripple of scandal if the bishops, upon finding priests in these circumstances, had acted swiftly and competently to keep these predators from molesting again.
By and large, they didn't. By and large, the bishops are failures. I don't know the cause of their failure, be it personal sin, stupidity, callousness, blackmail, or whatever. We can't judge that. But we know that they are failures, and it would be good if the ones who have failed were dismissed.
Sadly, it isn't going to happen this time.
Yendu is right to say that without addressing the underlying issue of homosexuals in the priesthood, this is only window-dressing. I don't know if the bishops honestly believe that they're on the right track or not. But the failure to address the underlying problem guarantees that we haven't seen the worst of this.
sitetest
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