Sins of the Fathers hidden by cardinal are laid bare at last (CHURCH SCANDAL UPDATE)

The Sunday Telegraph ^ | December 8, 2002 | Julian Coman

[MadIvan]

The sex, drugs and paedophilia scandal in the heart of the US Catholic Church has brought the Boston archdiocese to the edge of ruin, reports Julian Coman

Leo Inzaghi, the manager of the Caffe dello Sport in Boston's Italian district, stopped reading the local newspapers last week. As a practising Catholic and a father, he found their contents too shocking.

"My wife telephoned me and said, 'Have you seen what the Church knew about Father Nyhan?' It turned out that the priest at the private school where we sent our daughter was transferred there after being accused of molesting two little girls in another town. People are calling for our cardinal to resign in disgrace and that's exactly what he should do."

Mr Inzaghi is not the only Boston Catholic shaking his head in disbelief. Last Monday a court order, vainly contested by the Church, allowed lawyers acting for local abuse claimants against the archdiocese to publish secret memorandums and personnel files concerning 65 priests. Many bear the personal handwriting of Cardinal Bernard Law.

As a result, two million Catholics in the archdiocese of Boston are finding out what senior figures in the Church knew about a string of scandals over 30 years.

The American Catholic Church was already in crisis because of nationwide allegations of sexual abuse of children by clergy. In Boston, a city founded by Irish, Italian and Polish Catholics, the latest revelations have brought the archdiocese to the brink of financial and moral collapse.

Three thousand pages - from 11,000 - have so far been released, mainly dealing with eight priests. They reveal patterns of drug abuse, physical violence, kept mistresses and paedophilia.

They also document the strenuous efforts of senior Church officials to buy the silence of victims and transfer miscreant priests to parishes and jobs where their history was not suspected.

In an informal poll, a majority of Boston priests said that Cardinal Law should resign. A decision on whether the archdiocese should file for bankruptcy, to mitigate the effects of more than 450 pending lawsuits, is likely to be made by the cardinal next week.

In the words of one churchgoer, the papers have carried the city's Catholics "beyond outrage to a feeling that nobody knows how to name".

One priest, Richard Buntel, was known to local youth as "Father Pothead" and the "Blow King". Fr Buntel was reported by fellow priests to the archdiocese in 1983, amid allegations that he was distributing cocaine to young parishioners in the small Massachusetts town of Malden. Nothing was done.

Eleven years later he was accused of performing sex acts in exchange for cocaine. A secret payment of $55,000 was made to a young man. In 1999 Fr Buntel, after a period on "administrative leave", was transferred to another parish.

In 1993, the Church was told by James Foley - until last Thursday the associate pastor at St Joseph's church in Salem - that he had fathered two children with a woman who later died of a drug overdose while she was with him.

The priest, summoned to an interview with Cardinal Law to answer allegations of affairs with other women, confessed that he fled the house and failed to call for emergency help in time.

Notes taken during the meeting read: "Had two children in '65 and relationships married women . . . overdosed while he was present . . . started to faint . . . left came back . . . she died . . . a sister knows."

Fr Foley later wrote in a letter to the archdiocese: "Who will reveal it? The cardinal? Myself? A family member? Whoever knew the truth would not have waited 27 years.

How can the Church suffer scandal from an episode that will never possibly be revealed." Fr Foley was suspended last week as soon as the papers became public.

Fr Thomas Forry was found by Church authorities to have thrown a housekeeper downstairs after an argument and to have had an 11-year relationship with a married woman. Fr Forry was also alleged to have sexually abused her son. He retired last year.

More then $2 million was paid out in secret settlements to protect Robert Burns, accused of molesting six young men in Boston between 1982 and 1991. Before that, Fr Burns had spent a year at a therapy centre for priests.

According to a letter sent to the Vatican by Cardinal Law, he was allowed back into a Boston parish having given "solemn assurance of his ability to control his impulses".

Fr Burns left the Church in 1996, when a victim made her claims public. He was later imprisoned for sexual assaults on boys in New Hampshire.

Mike Emerton, the spokesman for Voice of the Faithful, a lay Catholic group formed in response to the sex abuse cases, said: "These documents signal the complete breakdown in trust between the laity and the men who have run the archdiocese of Boston, the jewel in the crown of American Catholicism."

Church attendance across the archdiocese has dropped by 20 per cent over the last year. Cardinal Law has insisted that he will only resign if asked to do so by the Pope.

"It's beyond time for him to leave," said the Rev Stephen S. Josoma. "It's now clear they knew all along and didn't do anything, and that they moved people around again and again and again."

Mr Inzaghi is just glad his daughter has left school. "These were serial crimes that people kept from us. Is a crime not a crime when it's committed by a priest?"

[MadIvan]

The thing I find frightening is the thought of how many dioceses that are in this state of "disrepair".

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Bump!

[Restorer]

In Boston, a city founded by Irish, Italian and Polish Catholics, the latest revelations have brought the archdiocese to the brink of financial and moral collapse.

Well, not really. They mostly showed up more than a century after the founding.

[polemikos]

Bernard Cardinal Law
Bishop: Church brass hid sex scandal
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/694594/posts
and
http://www2.bostonherald.com/news/local_regional/law11202002.htm

Bishop Paul S. Loverde - Arlington
Priest, bishop clash in sex, theft scandals
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/787395/posts

Bishop Thomas Daily - Brooklyn
Bishop: Promoted Priest Who Supported Man-Boy Sex
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/778005/posts
and
Lawsuit claims Bishop covered up for Paedophiles
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/771945/posts

Bishop John B. McCormack
Bishop Defends Decision on [gay priest]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/764439/posts

Bishop Walter Sullivan
Virginia bishop under fire for reinstating accused priest
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/733920/posts

Bishop Joseph Adamec
[Bishop] irked at loose lips in diocese
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/708574/posts
Time bishop [Adamec of Altoona-Johnstown] comes clean
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/705061/posts

Bishop James F. McCarthy
NEW YORK BISHOP RESIGNS
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/698314/posts

Bishop J. Kendrick Williams
Accused Kentucky Bishop Resigns
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/698166/posts

Bishop Anthony J. O'Connell
Bishop Resigns After Admitting Sexual Misconduct
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/643035/posts

Bishop Robert Brom
Diocese of San Diego attempts to squash lawsuits
http://www.rcf.org/pdfs/BromLawsuit_B_D.pdf

Bishop George Lucas
Springfield Diocese in Illinois
Replaced Bishop Ryan but keeps Ryan active in the Diocese
Bishop Daniel Ryan
Named as active homosexual who had engaged in sexual
activities with clergy and male prostitutes.
http://www.rcf.org/docs/bishop_lucas01.htm

[BansheeBill]

In 1993, the Church was told by James Foley - until last Thursday the associate pastor at St Joseph's church in Salem - that he had fathered two children with a woman who later died of a drug overdose while she was with him.

The priest, summoned to an interview with Cardinal Law to answer allegations of affairs with other women, confessed that he fled the house and failed to call for emergency help in time.

I have heard on a couple of radio talk shows in Boston that the request for records had actually been for a different priest named James Foley, who may have molested children, but the Archdiocese mistakenly sent the records for the other James Foley.

[eno_]

but the Archdiocese mistakenly sent the records for the other James Foley.

Which is a smoking gun that says the Archdiocese played games with discovery. They are digging their own grave (and, speaking of which, if they molested any kids from the North End that grave digging will be literal).

[Desdemona]

The thing I find frightening is the thought of how many dioceses that are in this state of "disrepair".

Boston, right now, has the worst of it. And Law DID submit a resignation, for the record. It was rejected. I don't want to second guess the Holy Father, but...

The time-bombs at the moment are Los Angeles and San Francisco. No records have been released yet. But, with all luck, maybe Mahoney will get himself in enough hot water that he'll resign, or better yet, be excommunicated. (and that monstrosity he built can maybe be unloaded...)

It ain't over yet. But when all is said and done, this will make us stronger. In 2,000 years, we've been through worse. We'll make it through this.

[VOA]

The thing I find frightening is the thought of how many dioceses that are in
this state of "disrepair".

What I find amazing is that as far as I know, only one of these errant police have
been shot.
(it was a fellow who was abused as a boy/early teen who shot, but only wounded, the
accussed priest...after the powers that be gave him the run-around)

I don't know what I'd do if I found out that some priest (or a garden-variety pervert)
was abusing children in my neighborhood...

All I can presume is that the Catholic priest scandals show how really pacifistic
the average American is...
and how little they value the sexual innocence of their children...

[VOA]

duh..
I meant "errant priests"...
NOT "errant police"!

[Hermann the Cherusker]

In Boston, a city founded by Irish, Italian and Polish Catholics

Talk about historical iliteracy in the press!

[Palladin]

You are such a Polyanna. You don't seem to be fully aware of what has transpired in the American Church. An institution based on truth has been caught in lie after lie after lie. Its leaders are full of deceit. The American Church is morally bankrupt.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

the archdiocese of Boston, the jewel in the crown of American Catholicism."

What a crock. The Archdiocese of Boston has long been considered a joke.

[VOA]

The time-bombs at the moment are Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Hey, if there have been some really incredible priest scandals in conservative
places like Louisiana (one from about 10-20 years ago was covered on Sixty Minutes II
a couple of months ago) only caused a ripple in the criminal/civil justice system...

how can we expect priests in Los Angeles and San Francisco to get a real smack-down
for bascially acting in accord with mores accepted by too many as "local community standards".

I hope you are right and that most of these stinkers get what they deserve (with full
justice administered).

But the intertwining of the Catholic Church and the one-party Democrat rule here
tells me that District Attorneys, even Republican ones, will pull their punches.
E.g., Steve Cooley, (R), the current district attorney for Los Angeles,
is a faithful attendent at a Catholic Church that Manhoney used as a forum
to issue one of his "apologies".

A few of the worst cases will end up paying for the sins of the many...

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

And Law DID submit a resignation, for the record. It was rejected. I don't want to second guess the Holy Father, but...

Unnamed sources have said that Law offered to resign. There's been nothing "for the record" confirming that he did. If you know who the unnamed source is then please share his/her identity. If you have a link to a published confirmation that Law offered to resign then share that as well. Otherwise, it's speculation. If in fact it was offered and rejected perhaps the Pope knew that Law would be better off in the long run being put through the ringer in the press and in depositions and cleaning up the mess he is reponsible for than if he resigned and quietly disappeared into obscurity.

[cynicom]

The Pope should throw Law out, but he wont. There is no way all of this happened without the Vatican being privy, no way.

[Desdemona]

An institution based on truth has been caught in lie after lie after lie. Its leaders are full of deceit. The American Church is morally bankrupt.

SOME of them are. Believe me, I knew about this stuff 13-14 years ago, long before it ever came out. Not all of the bishops are duplicitous. Some are actually very pious and orthodox (Cardinal George, Archbishop Doran, Archbishop Dolan, Archbishop Rigali, among others).

It's a long story, but it all started in the office of the papal nuncio. One advisor made a whole lot of bad decisions. Pope John Paul II took that bishop out of the office almost immediately after taking office, in 1979. All the bishops who seem to be involved were elevated either before or in the first 5 years of JPII's tenure, before he knew who he could trust. The more recent ones are cleaning up the mess.

BTW, the church is about GOd. If we start making decisions about God based on what we think about men, that changes the focus, doesn't it? The church's teaching hasn't changed. Scrippture hasn't changed. So, we clean house and go on. Now, if they'd kindly get Los Angeles out in the open....

[Desdemona]

Unnamed sources have said that Law offered to resign. There's been nothing "for the record" confirming that he did.

SMED, it was published in March or April. Mutiple times.

[Desdemona]

But the intertwining of the Catholic Church and the one-party Democrat rule here tells me that District Attorneys, even Republican ones, will pull their punches. E.g., Steve Cooley, (R), the current district attorney for Los Angeles, is a faithful attendent at a Catholic Church that Manhoney used as a forum to issue one of his "apologies".

THus proving that Mahoney is more politician than man of God. Darn it. I'm still praying for deliverence for the people of Los Angeles from the cardinal.

[aimhigh]

So whats a Catholic to do? I don't see any Catholics finding a path to these other religions. The Catholics love the Catholic Church ..

Perhaps a Catholic should do a reality check to see if the church he loves is realilty, or a figment of wishful imagination. In 1 Thess 4, the Apostle Paul said (I paraphrase) that anyone who rejects God's command for sexual purity has rejected God.
If the real church doesn't serve God, but now serves the "organization", then it's time for the Catholic to see if they love God more than the organization.