Posted on 07/22/2004 4:40:59 PM PDT by Land of the Irish
(TUCSON, Arizona) -- A former Catholic seminarian is suing the Diocese of Tucson, its bishops, and Bishop Wilton Gregory, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops among other high-ranking American prelates. The suit alleges a pattern of racketeering activity exemplified by fraud and obstruction of justice.
Attorney Ivan Abrams filed the case under provisions of federal RICO - Racketeering Influence and Corrupt Organizations - statutes. The federal RICO law is a set of statutes that was initially directed at shutting down organized crime. Over the past two years, however, RICO has been used by some plaintiffs who argue that the Church cover-up of the clergy abuse crisis falls under RICO’s provisions.
Philip A. Hower was studying at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, when he was ousted from the Diocese of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania by now-Cardinal William Keeler of Baltimore. Hower claims he was essentially ‘fired’ and later blackballed from ordination in other dioceses because he ‘blew the whistle’ on the homosexual activities of priests with whom he resided as a priest candidate.
According to the federal lawsuit, filed in Tucson on July 16, Hower had satisfactorily fulfilled all seminary requirements to be ordained a transitional deacon, the final step on the path to ordination to the Catholic priesthood. In the summer of 1985, prior to completion of his Master of Divinity degree, Keeler assigned Hower to a parish in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania to complete his required pastoral internship under the supervision of Father John G. Allen.
Although the seminarian resided with Allen at the parish, Hower claims he was ordered by the pastor to vacate the rectory on a regular basis. It wasn’t long before Hower discovered the reason why. He said he learned from the parish deacon and several parishioners that Fr. Allen was involved in homosexual relationships with several young men who would come to visit him from the local college.
Hower subsequently complained to then-Bishop Keeler about Allen’s illicit activities on parish property. According to the lawsuit, Keeler responded to the seminarian’s concerns with retaliation. The bishop contacted the Josephinum and ordered that Hower be dismissed from the priesthood-program there and was expelled from the Diocese of Harrisburg so that he could "contemplate his commitment to God and to the Church."
In 2002, after diocesan officials confronted Fr. John Allen with an allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor, the priest resigned as pastor of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque Church. He reportedly remains on paid administrative leave.
Despite Hower’s curt dismissal by Keeler so near to his date of ordination, he returned to the Josephinum to complete his M.Div. degree as an independent lay student without the sponsorship of a bishop, a requirement for ordination.
After two years of teaching religious education, Hower believed he still had a vocation to the priesthood and he wished to answer the call. He discovered it would not be so easy.
In 1987 Hower contacted Fr. Steven Stencil, then vocations director for the Diocese of Tucson and was invited out to Arizona for an interview. According to the lawsuit, Stencil contacted the Josephinum and the Diocese of Harrisburg, and was instructed to prevent Hower’s ordination "by any means available."
Stencil responded by placing Hower in a pastoral internship at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Yuma under the supervision of Fr. Richard Troutman, a priest who was allegedly known to Stencil and to Bishop Manuel Moreno to be an active homosexual.
But even before Hower arrived at the Yuma parish, he was picked up at the airport in Tucson by Stencil, the vocations director. According to the lawsuit, Stencil lured Hower into his own rectory on the pretense that he needed the priest-candidate’s assistance. Once inside the rectory, Hower claims, Stencil allegedly attempted to sexually assault him, and told him that "it’s OK to be a homosexual."
Hower emphasizes that he is not and never was a homosexual, and moreover, as a devout Catholic, he believes in and supports the promise of celibacy that every priest of the Roman rite is required to make upon ordination.
Hower claims he had to struggle to free himself from the vocations director, and once away from his would-be rapist, immediately left Stencil’s rectory for safer territory. Due to his experience with Cardinal Keeler, Hower initially told no one about the alleged assault out of fear of Stencil’s power to have him expelled from the Tucson diocese. The lawsuit states that Hower had learned in Harrisburg "that revelation to priests or bishops with management authority of the acts of predator priests was futile and counter-productive."
The bottom line: Hower knew that he would have no chance to be ordained in Tucson if he were to blow the whistle on the diocesan vocations director.
Shortly after Hower returned to St. Francis he learned that Stencil was close friends with his pastor, Fr. Richard Troutman. He also learned that, like Fr. Allen in the Harrisburg diocese, Troutman was allegedly using his rectory for homosexual encounters. Around Christmas in 1987 Hower’s suspicions were confirmed, he claims. Hospitalized due to the result of an alcohol abuse problem, Troutman was confined to a sickbed. When Hower visited him there, Troutman allegedly asked him to masturbate him. Hower says he was appalled and left.
This time Hower decided he was not going to remain silent. As he did in Harrisburg, Hower went through the proper channels in order to lodge an official complaint with Tucson’s Bishop Manuel Moreno. The Arizona bishop didn’t react any more favorably than did Cardinal Keeler.
Hower first met with Bishop Moreno’s Vicar General, Fr. Richard O’Keefe. According to the lawsuit, O’Keefe admitted that he was aware of "Troutman’s personal history of wrongful misconduct with church members and others," an apparent reference to the priest’s homosexual proclivities.
When Troutman learned of Hower’s complaint through O’Keefe, Hower claims that Troutman and others at the Diocese of Tucson "discussed, contrived and concocted a false story that that [Hower] had been intimate with Dick Troutman’s homosexual lover, that is, with Bradley Jones, which story was later determined to be a cynical and manipulative fabrication created by Dick Troutman, his lover Bradley Jones, and others to cause harm to Mr. Hower."
Jones later admitted that he fabricated the defamatory and scandalous allegations about Hower at the behest of Troutman, the suit states.
Around this time, Hower met with Bishop Moreno about the sexual activities of Troutman and Stencil. Moreno’s response was to accuse Hower of "a loss of faith in God and Christ," and to state that Hower appeared to be unsuitable for the priesthood. Hower was first ordered to be evaluated by a psychologist and ultimately Moreno told Hower he would reconsider his suitability for ordination in five years.
The suit goes on to claim that "Moreno corruptly and with evil purpose cautioned [Hower] to be silent forever more about what he had observed regarding Troutman and Stencil, lest Mr. Hower ruin any remaining opportunity that he might have to be ordained."
What Hower didn’t know at the time was that Moreno had no plans to ever reconsider a whistleblower like Hower. Ultimately, Hower was denied ordination not for reasons of religious belief or practice, nor for defects in his qualifications, but in furtherance of the ‘conspiracy’ described by Hower in these terms: to recklessly conceal criminal or immoral conduct; to defraud the members of the Church by failing to reveal the use of parishioner contributions to fund obstruction of justice; to defame beyond facile repair the reputation of those who have come forward to reveal abuses in the Church; to defraud the members of the Church and others by engaging in secret negotiations and settlements; to use the ‘moral force’ of the bishops to routinely banish those who complained of ongoing sexual harassment or revealed knowledge of depraved conduct of certain priests and bishops; to defame their good reputation by publishing false and misleading statements, comments, and innuendo about "whistleblowers"; and to periodically renew their defamatory conduct against "whistleblowers" so that the false and misleading statements remained new and current.
Meanwhile, Father Steven Stencil was suspended from the priesthood in February, 2001—two years after a 17-year-old male student lodged credible allegations of sexual molestation against the priest. In addition to serving as the Tucson diocese’s Vocations Director during the late 1980’s, Stencil also served as the head of the diocesan program for boys interested in the priesthood from 1986-94.
When the 17-year-old first made his accusation against Stencil, the Diocese of Tucson under Bishop Moreno dismissed the priest’s actions as "accidental." The State of Arizona declined to prosecute Stencil, but the priest remains on paid administrative leave.
A pattern of deception
Hower’s lawsuit not only details his own dismissal for ‘blowing the whistle,’ it also painstakingly documents other similar incidents in order to show a pattern of deception used by many American bishops and senior priests in order to cover up the misdeeds of fellow priests.
The ostracization and banishment of whistleblowers sends a strong signal to others that silence about sexual crimes and immoral sexual activities is to be rewarded while those who reveal clerical misdeeds are to be punished—or, effectively eliminated, as in Hower’s case or in the recent case of Fr. James Haley in Arlington, Virginia.
(Haley was permanently suspended by Bishop Paul Loverde for testifying in a legal deposition about the immoral homosexual practices of his fellow diocesan priests. He was told that he was guilty of violating an order for him not to publicize priestly wrongdoing in order to "avoid scandal, to maintain ecclesiastical discipline and to protect the reputation and privacy of both the faithful and priests of this diocese." In other words, he was ordered to participate in a cover-up, while his bishop did nothing to remedy the situations of concern.)
Hower’s own investigation, he says, has revealed the same pattern of deception in the dioceses of Boston, Los Angeles, Saint Louis, Minneapolis, Chicago, Manchester and Portland, Maine—to name but a few. Hower’s treatment at the hands of Keeler and Moreno illustrates the modus operandi whereby whistleblowers are treated as criminals, while active homosexual priests are protected and promoted by their allies in what priest sociologist Fr. Andrew Greeley has dubbed "the Lavender Mafia."
"The pattern of job termination and banishment continues to underscore the Church’s attempt to obstruct justice and to create a so-called stone wall between itself and civilian law enforcement authorities who seek the identification of perverted priests so that criminal prosecutions might ensue," the lawsuit states.
The suit also states that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops under the leadership of Bishop Wilton Gregory assisted the defendants in the obstruction of justice.
In a paragraph that nicely sums up the nature of Hower’s complaints, the lawsuit states: "The actions of which [Hower] complains were committed by persons in pursuit of their own secular interests, who used the structure of the Roman Catholic Church as a shield behind which they could conduct their affairs in wanton and intentional disregard of the criminal and civil law of the State of Arizona and the United States of America, and in contempt of the tenets of their faith, and in deliberate flaunting of their nominal positions as officials and managers within the Roman Catholic Church."
For the past month, the Diocese of Tucson has been considering filing for bankruptcy.
Michael S. Rose is the author a several books including the New York Times bestseller Goodbye, Good Men. He is Executive Editor of Cruxnews.com.
Ping
"Philip A. Hower was studying at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, when he was ousted from the Diocese of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania by now-Cardinal William Keeler of Baltimore. Hower claims he was essentially ‘fired’ and later blackballed from ordination in other dioceses because he ‘blew the whistle’ on the homosexual activities of priests with whom he resided as a priest candidate."
How orthodox can Ohio's Josephinum be when its under the control of the heterodox perverts in the USCCB?
Questions:
1. How can sodomites proliferate in nearly every diocese throughout the world without the pope noticing a problem?
2. Other than publishing on poetry and phenomenologic philosophies, kissing the koran and hugging trees with pagans in Assisi, what more could the current pope possibly have done?
Where is Keeler now?
Washington, D.C.-American Life League's Summer Crusade for Life -a 1,300-mile walk from Maine to Washington, D.C., by 12 pro-life Catholic college students witnessing to the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death-arrives in Baltimore, Md., this week to spread its pro-life message, despite the fact that the archdiocese officially rejected the walkers' request to speak at parishes in the Baltimore area.
"We hope our presence will encourage Cardinal William Keeler to step forward boldly to proclaim the Gospel of Life and protect the Body of Christ by withholding Holy Communion from public supporters of abortion," said Yungwirth.
However, if what he says is true, I hope he gets millions.
This mafiosi-like behavior from bishops (something Governor Keating pointed out, and got booted from the Review Board for) should cost them (or, rather, their long-suffering laity) big-time.
Anybody want to tell me a gay priest would put a move on a married priest? Or a married seminarian?
He's basically washed his hands of any responsiblity for what occurs "across the pond".
Now the problems's getting too close to home, Rome. The evil, the corruption is creeping back to it's source. Time to spin another web.
Is it a question of acquiring as near absolute proof as possible, so as to avoid false prosecutions? How is it possible to retain Faith in the present day Church heirarchy when such as is described in this piece exists? How is it possible to extirpate this seed of lucifer?
It is now way beyond the mere carnality of man, and well into complex premeditation, absolute gratification and abject evil. Surely, the Lord will countenance something more than Prayer to bring these men to justice. When you seek the Lord's guidance and assistance with afflictions and addictions, he expects you to do your part above and beyond Prayer, he expects you to exert and discipline your will. What can the laity do to bring this disgrace into full frontal view so that it can be dispatched? What can we do? This piece has made me literally nauseous.
***Now the problems's getting too close to home, Rome. The evil, the corruption is creeping back to it's source.***
Point of clarification: Are you saying Rome is the source of evil? That statement would get me a week in FR Purgatory!
I did not say "all evil". Satan has many devils and lately they've been making great progress.
"Evil people always support each other; that is their main strength."
Alexander Solzhenitsin
This seems almost like a preview of the book Michael Rose is rumored to be working on.
Perhaps we are now reaping what we sowed. Satan has entered and corrupted every aspect of society in America; the media, the entertainment industry, business, schools, the legal system, politics, families, and now even the Catholic Church. He accomplished this because the general population no longer believe that he exists. Talk to someone about the devil and watch their facial expressions; they will think you're nuts.
From what you are saying, it sounds as if the Catholics here (as opposed to the AmChurchites) have been abandonded and ignored by the shepherd.
Not likely that he'll "get millions."
The position of the Church in this suit should be that 'nobody has a RIGHT to Ordination.' It would be consistent with not only Church teaching, but Church practice for the last zillion years or so. It's an 'internal affair' which the Courts SHOULD not touch.
Well, perhaps you could compare the dates of when this happened versus what is going on at the college/seminary now. I happen to know several young men in seminary and some of the priests who teach. The young men were extremely concerned about the lavender mafia prior to entering and have found NO TOLERANCE for lavenderishness at the Josephinum now. Do you have first-hand information that contradicts this view?
Well, perhaps you could compare the dates of when this happened versus what is going on at the college/seminary now. I happen to know several young men in seminary and some of the priests who teach. The young men were extremely concerned about the lavender mafia prior to entering and have found NO TOLERANCE for lavenderishness at the Josephinum now. Do you have first-hand information that contradicts this view?
Your information may be correct, but it just seems ironic that this same spin is put on every scandal -- "It was a problem before, but now we have taken care of it." That was the method that the Clintons used successfully to defuse every scandal -- "Oh that. Sure, that's old news. Every one knows about that. But we've cleaned that up and now we're moving forward. You wouldn't want to impede our new forward progress, would you?"
I am skeptical of all such claims. As someone else posted, this bishop just resigned in 2002, so the problem hasn't been gone for long, if it is being corrected.
And as far as the seminary in Columbus goes, it reminds me very much of the seminary in Detroit. Everyone up there was going ballistic over Michael Rose's book, "Goodbye Good Men," because they claimed that maybe there used to be problems, but now it's all fixed. But the claim proved to be premature at best.
With the kind of evidence we see in this case and the Fr. Haley case, and so many other cases, I don't trust any seminary or any member of the New Mass establishment, I'm afraid. They're all guilty until proven innocent. Just like I wouldn't go into a business deal with John Gotti, no matter how many times he swore that he had turned his life around and gone straight, in the same way I wouldn't trust my soul to the members of the Lavender Mafia, no matter how many times they claim that they have gotten the situation under control.
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