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?"

[Desdemona]

It must really pi** off the Catholic haters to see that the Catholics aren't listening to them.

Lalalalalala...we are not listening...lalalalalalala...we are not listening...lalalalalalala.

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

It's as if non-Catholics believe that we put more faith in men than God.

[ConservativeNewsNetwork]

The Church doesn't serve itself, disgraceful members of it do. You can no more say that one should denounce their religion because of a few bad apples in the priesthood than you could say that America is evil and citizenship should be renounced because it's leader purjured himself. Too bad for catholic haters everywhere.

[MassRepublican]

What is a Catholic to do?
Both laity and priests in the diocese have had with Law.
The Boston Globe and the Herald both have stories today about the priests meeting to decide on publicly asking for Cardinal Law to resign. If you know about the Church hierachy, this is stunning.
The laity has pulled their financial support in large numbers and quite a few are no longer attending Mass.
This is coming to a head quickly. As a Catholic, I don't believe that healing can come under the leadership of the current Cardinal. Too much damage has been done to trust him.

[xonique]

Look, the Church is about God, but if you want to go with that, keep in mind that the Church is currently supported here on Earth by people. So yeah, it's about God, but because it's run by people, it's liable to screw things up. I'm not saying that we should think that all of the bishops and priests and cardinals and whatnot are pedophiles. The simple fact is that there are certain psychological qualities that pedophiles tend to posess that are similar to those that would attract a person to religious (and celibate) life. That doesn't mean that God is for this sort of thing. Celibacy wasn't even a part of the original intent (from what I gather.) The only reason that they can't get married now is that some pope in the Middle Ages (I can't remember which for the life of me) decided that the Church was losing too much land to the sons of these priests and bishops after they died, so they made celibacy a part of religious life. And celibacy is as unnatural to humans as pedophilia. So, what I'm trying to say (and getting so far away from) is that I trust in God, not so much the Church.

[cookcounty]

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

Wha-a-a-a-t? Wow, Polish Puritans! Irish Congregationalists! Italian Roundheads! And all of them secret papists! How do these ignorant reporters get these jobs while I get stuck drivin' this rig?

[potlatch]

The Archdiocese of Boston has long been considered a joke.

Especially if Ted Kennedy is a parishner there. I always wondered how he could get Communion, absolution, and an Annulment with his track record!!

[xonique]

Hey, there are definitely catholic polish churches, near Boston, at the very least. Trust me. I've been dragged, and the masses are predominantly in Polish. Plus, they ship in priests from Poland. It's all kind of odd, but existing.

[Feldkurat_Katz]

Hey, there are definitely catholic polish churches, near Boston, at the very least. Trust me. I've been dragged, and the masses are predominantly in Polish. Plus, they ship in priests from Poland. It's all kind of odd, but existing.

All true, but Boston was not founded by Catholics (which is what the article claimed.) By the way, Boston's early Catholic population did not have any significant number of Poles or Italians (not sure about the Irish.) The first Catholic bishop, Cheverus, was French.

[VOYAGER]

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.

Boy, will the ship hit the sand when a staunch Catholic by the handle of -------- who may be more Catholic than the pope sees the above italicised information plus the other alledged charges naming not a few of the 'most reverend' leaders of the Roman Church as being touched by these alledged charges?

These alledged charges are listed by polemikos at the beginning through to the end of his post #4 to Madivan on 12-07-02 @6:07 PM PST.

A well meaning young priest told me one time concerning a point of faith we were discussing, that fifty million Catholics couldn't be wrong, and maybe others also know what the French said about their invincibility concerning the outcome of a war with Germany at the beginning of WW1, fifty million Frenchmen can't be wrong, and how was that turning out before Black Jack Pershing and the magnificent AEF landed in France and announced "Layfayette we are here"?

The moral of this story could be that in God's theocracy being in the majority has no bearing on the predetermined outcome because God and one person can be a majority.

[Feldkurat_Katz]

I would, at least temporarily, oppose Law's resignation. What you have is that New York Times (and the wholly-owned Boston Globe) is going after two theologically conservative high-profile prelates - Law and Egan. Note that media are not going after liberal bishops; they want conservative bishops out while keeping homosexual priests in. Capitulating now would amount to giving NYT a veto power over church appointments.

In the long run, Law should resign, but prior to that he should right his wrongs by purging active homosexuals. When Boston Globe starts complaining about homophobia and witchunts - that will be the time for him to go.

[xonique]

Okay, I just checked, and sorry, you're right, I was waay off on that one. Gracias. And yes, that definitely means that the press needs Internet access.

[Feldkurat_Katz]

Glad to have been helpful. I'm originally from Poland BTW.

[Grampa Dave]

Why does this surprise anyone.

This is Boston where the CINO's return the homosexual predator Barney Frank to congress without a second thought and are glad to do it.

The same CINO's who vote to return the Killer Whale, Ted Kennedy without a second thought and are glad to do it.

They ignore the planned parenthood chapters pushing unlimited abortion in their city without a second thought and are glad to do it.

We have the same problem in Kalifornicator when the Kali Queen of Abortion, Nancy Pelosi says that she is a conservative Catholic and her bishop and cardinal and priests just stand there and say nothing about her strident and very vocal pro abortion activities. Then, the CINO's in her district vote for her in each election.

Then, the Kali King of abortion, the criminal Gray Davis says that he is a conservative Catholic and his bishop, cardinal and priests just stand there as he slammed Simon the whole campaign for being anti abortion. Then he has CINO's voting for him all over the state in two gubernatorial elections.

Any CINO who votes for a pro abortionist and sends them money to be re elected is as guilty as the cardinals, bishops and priests.

Which sin is worse the pro abortion CINO who votes serially for Barney Frank, Teddy Kennedy, Pelosi or Gray Davis? Or the bishops and Cardinals who have allowed sexual predators both heterosexual and homosexual to prey on young Catholic children.

Both groups will probably go to hell for their actions for not doing what was right and allowing their members, priests, Bishops and Cardinals to create living hells in America for their innocent unborns and children.

[ConservativeNewsNetwork]

It's quite simple, you moron. :)

Decades ago, someone screwed up in seminary, and they started thinking that maybe it wouldn't be too bad to let gay priests in. I mean, isn't all the PCPsychobabble right? Can't the gays control themselves just as straight men can in the priesthood?

Then when the molestations started coming to light, those in power in the Church screwed up. Instead of defrocking the pedophiles and turning them over to the local authorities with a full and complete disclosure of what they did, they paid off the vicrims and just moved them around. Why did they do this? That's the million dollar question.

Now you have liberal dityrags like the New York Times that would like nothing better than to see the Church and anything that isn't virulently leftist dissappear from the face of the earth.

The first two things can be summed up as church leaders mistaking politics for theology. The last is to be expected as long as there are wicked people in the world.