Did diocese [Altoona-Johnstown] sweep incident under rug? Teacher on run falls to death in Canada

THE TRIBUNE-DEMOCRAT/ Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ^ | January 15, 2004 | Dr. Brian Kopp

[Polycarp IV]

The Johnstown Tribune Democrat

Thursday, January 15, 2004

Reader's Forum, Page A9

Did diocese sweep incident under rug?

The national report on sexual abuse by the U.S. Roman Catholic Bishops was released last week. In the Altoona-Johnstown diocese, Bishop Adamec's spokeswoman states the bishop is in complete compliance, and most importantly, that there have been no substantiated incidences of sexual abuse occurring in the past 20 years.

The laity needs to know what criteria our bishop employs to delineate "substantiated" from "unsubstantiated" incidents. Last year, one of our bishop's ordained ministers abducted a minor high school student, fled to another country, and committed suicide. Students from the high school have stated that the student body and administration were aware of this ordained minister's involvement with this minor, and possibly others, and that he had been on probation. Since the diocesan education office micromanages all aspects of Catholic education in this diocese, it strains credibility to believe they were unaware of this minister's probation.

How is it possible the diocese forgot about this episode so soon, when making its public statements last week? Is it possible that this diocese does not consider workplace probation among widespread reports of inappropriate relationship, abduction of a minor, fleeing to a foreign country and suicide, to be a "substantiated" incident? Like another administration that often defied credulity, must we have a blue dress -- or cassock and surplice -- with forensic evidence intact for an incident now to be considered substantiated by this diocese? Did the diocese forget this incident because, unlike all the rest, the victim was just a teenage girl?

The trumpeted results of the diocesan participation are not cause for celebration but for more cynicism among the Catholic faithful.

Dr. Brian Kopp Johnstown --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Teacher on run falls to death in Canada

Friday, March 07, 2003

By The Associated Press

JOHNSTOWN -- A suspended Catholic high school teacher accused of taking a 15-year-old female student to Canada with him fell to his death from an apartment balcony yesterday when Canadian police hunting the pair found him at his mother's Ontario apartment.

Police in Welland, Ontario, 20 miles west of Niagara Falls, N.Y., said Thomas Lemmon, 38, fell around 10:45 a.m. from a fourth-floor balcony at his mother's apartment.

It was unclear whether Lemmon, suspended from Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown after classes Wednesday, was trying to flee or committed suicide, Cambria County District Attorney David Tulowitzki said.

A Niagara Regional Police Service spokeswoman said last night that child welfare officials there had the teenager, a Bishop McCort student, in protective custody. Her name was not released.

Lemmon, who lived in Upper Yoder, a Johnstown suburb, was married and had two teenage children. Neighbor Diane Sabo described the family as "very, very nice people."

The mother of the missing teen contacted Johnstown authorities after her daughter and Lemmon did not show up at a church in nearby Ebensburg for Ash Wednesday services. The mother knew the two were supposed to be going to church together, according to a court document.

Police talked with another teenager who said the girl and Lemmon were going to Canada.

An extradition order was issued, charging Lemmon with interfering with the custody of children. Canadian police were contacted, and, according to a news release from Johnstown authorities, Lemmon "reportedly jumped" as detectives reached the residence in Welland.

Charles Koren, superintendent of schools for the diocese, said Lemmon had been a teacher at Bishop McCort since 1987 and had taught religion and computer classes. He was an ordained deacon, though he did not serve in a religious capacity at the school, Koren said.

A woman who identified herself as Lemmon's wife declined comment when reached at home yesterday.

Staff writer Tom Gibb contributed to this report.

[Polycarp IV]

Update on Bishop Adamec/ Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown PA continuing cover-ups.

Ping

[Hodar]

The trumpeted results of the diocesan participation are not cause for celebration but for more cynicism among the Catholic faithful.

Bears repeating.

[dangus]

Is the story of the teacher troubling? Yes. But to be fair, holding it out as a contradiction of the bishop's statement is silly. And calling a married teacher an "ordained minister" is nothing less than a shameful attempt at confusion, since most people would believe that "an ordained minister" refers to someone who has received the sacrament of ordination.

The plain meaning of the bishop's stament is that there have been no cases of the diocese's priests being involved in a sex scandal. This kind of hacking and berzerking is very unconstructive to solving the very real and very grave crisis in the church.

[Polycarp IV]

The teacher is someone who has received the sacrament of ordination, an ordained Roman Catholic deacon, ordained by Bishop Adamec.

Does this fact change your assessment?

[Polycarp IV]

The plain meaning of the bishop's stament is that there have been no cases of the diocese's priests being involved in a sex scandal. This kind of hacking and berzerking is very unconstructive to solving the very real and very grave crisis in the church.

I knew this deacon, prior to his ordination.

The diaconate training program filled his head with situational ethics and dissent.

In the days prior to his death, he was instructing his Religion classes that if one says a perfect act of contrition prior to suicide, one may avoid hell.

He was screwed up at least in part by the dissent and heresy rampant in this diocese.

That is part and parcel of the very real and very grave crisis in the church.

By the way, I am the author of the Reader's Forum Letter above.

[dangus]

>> Does this fact change your assessment? >>

Frankly, it does significantly. As to his strange notions of suicide, it shows three things:
1. It's strong support for the notion that his death was suicide.
2. It shows he was irrational. (How can you have perfect contrition for an act you are about to do?)
3. The school failed to intervene

I would suggest a different emphasis for the article: Bishop ordained suicidal madman to be deacon.

[Polycarp IV]

1. It's strong support for the notion that his death was suicide.

I know of no cases whereby an adult committed suicide over a purely platonic and chaste relationship with a minor.

[Askel5]

Her mother thought they were going to Mass?

Is this something they'd done often?

[dangus]

>>I know of no cases whereby an adult committed suicide over a purely platonic and chaste relationship with a minor.??

OK, is there something *more* I don't know? We can say The suicide *involved* the minor, since he had abducted her, but you hadn't yet asserted that it was *over* the minor. Is it plausible the teacher, in his own sick way, saw himself as desperately reaching out to someone, not jaded by adulthood, as someone who "could understand" his "pain"? Was there anything to indicate that the student had been his *focus,* and not merely someone he thought would empathize with him?

[Polycarp IV]

We can say The suicide *involved* the minor, since he had abducted her, but you hadn't yet asserted that it was *over* the minor.

From what I have been told by students, they had been caught "necking" in the school building more than once. That is reportedly why he was previously on probation. Reportedly after a repeated offense he was placed on suspension just prior to his suicide. Students claim there was more than just "necking" to their relationship.

[Salvation]

This needs to be all over the headlines!

BTTT!

[Salvation]

**Students claim there was more than just "necking" to their relationship.**

And if anyone would know the truth it would be the students! <--not sarcasm!

[sydney smith]

Dangus, how danged thick-headed are you?????

[dangus]

Personal invectives aside, it's not my fault the relevant information was omitted from the initial article.

* It did not state that the teacher was a deacon.
* It did not state that the deacon had been installed by that bishop.
* It did not state that the deacon had been disciplined for inappropriate non-platonic relationship with the student in question.
* It did not include support for the supposition that the suicide was over the relationship with the student.

Pardon me if I insist on hearing a little evidence before hanging people. When the evidence was presented to me, I did already state that I agreed with the conclusion.

I recommend that you, in the future, wait until you review the evidence in question before you leap to your intemperate conclusions.

[dangus]

>>* It did not state that the deacon had been disciplined for inappropriate non-platonic relationship with the student in question. >>

(It cited the students' belief that this is what happened. Given the events, the fact that students *presumed* this is what happened means little.)

[Land of the Irish]

Pardon me if I insist on hearing a little evidence before hanging people.

It's a little late too hang him, he's already taken care of it.

[dangus]

I was referring to the bishop, smarty-pants.