Chicago Priest Arrested in Miami has Ties to Shuttered Program

Catholic News Agency ^ | 9/4/18

[marshmallow]

Chicago, Ill., Sep 4, 2018 / 03:30 pm (CNA).- Two priests from the Archdiocese of Chicago were arrested Monday in Miami, after the men were reportedly found engaged in a sex act within a parked car. At least one of them was a participant in a program for Hispanic seminarians that was suspended by the Archdiocese of Chicago.

One of the priests, Fr. Diego L. Berrio, is the pastor of Mision San Juan Diego in Arlington Heights, Illinois. He was also appointed this summer the interim “coordinator of the Office for Extern and International Priests.”

The other priest, Fr. Edwin Cortes listed the parish as his address when he was arrested. A Sept. 4 statement from the Archdiocese of Chicago said that Cortes is "an extern priest from Soacha, Colombia who served at St. Aloysius Parish in Chicago for one month, August 1 to August 31, 2018."

The statement said that Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago "has removed Fr. Berrio from ministry and withdrawn his faculties to minister in the Archdiocese of Chicago, effective immediately. The archdiocese will appoint an administrator for the Misión San Juan Diego as soon as possible."

"Archdiocese representatives have been in contact with Fr. Cortes’ home diocese of Soacha, Colombia and informed them that Fr. Cortes will not be granted additional faculties to minister in the Archdiocese of Chicago," it said.

The priests were both charged with lewd conduct, and Cortes was also charged with indecent exposure.

Berrio was ordained a priest in the Archdiocese of Chicago in 2008. The priest, a native of Colombia, came to Chicago through the Casa Jesus program, a “house of discernment” in which prospective seminarians from Latin America were invited to consider the priesthood during a year-long program sponsored by the archdiocese. The program was founded.....

[texas booster]

IIRC This was the program that allowed Colombians seminarians (hand picked by gay bishops) to come to the US and become parish priests.

No wonder the US has a shortage of priests, if that is the admission ticket to a parish.

Very hard to “randomly” hire enough priests to turn a parish into 70% or more gay priests, that quickly.

[chief lee runamok]

Apparently the duo was so involved in their oral activity the police had to rap vigorously on the auto window to get their undivided attention.

[neverevergiveup]

When I think of all those elderly people who go to mass every morning, light candles, and treat priests with the deepest respect, this breaks my heart.

[ConservaTexan]

Sounds a lot like organized crime. RICO statutes should be used. How does a Catholic tithe without knowing their $ is being used to pay for the silence of vicims?

[texas booster]

Please understand: I am not piling on to the Catholic Church's problems, but I worked closely with the Catholic Diocese in the early 90’s and knew Fr. Rudy Kos for about two years before he was moved to a new parish.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/tx-dallas/Dallas-1997-07-b.htm#awards

Nice enough guy on the outside, and always acted as though his ministry came first. I think he had a split personality, to live such very different lives.

IMO there was a spiritual problem at the Diocese before I started helping, back in the 80’s, that was much bigger than Kos.

[Lurker]

I thought it was Pfleger for sure.

L

[Dogbert41]

"When I think of all those elderly people who go to mass every morning, light candles, and treat priests with the deepest respect, this breaks my heart."

lololololololololol

I don't even have the heart to bring the subject up with my Dad when he tells me I need to go to mass. They go almost every day. He's almost 90 now.

[spel_grammer_an_punct_polise]

Well, at least it wasn’t a grown man with a child.

[neverevergiveup]

I admire your parent’s faith. It’s obviously not them, but those they trust who are the problem with Catholicism.

[o-n-money]

Semenarians: weren’t they just doing their jobs?

[Fedora]

That'd be this: "Church Militant has learned that a clandestine pipeline for homosexual seminarians was established in the 1990s and into the early 2000s where active gay men from Colombia, South America were being secretly funneled to U.S. seminaries. . .The secret pipeline involved a so-called 'house of formation' established by the archdiocese of Newark in 2003 near the Colombian cities of Medellin and Bogota. Seminarians who had actually been expelled from various Colombian seminaries for homosexual activity were quietly told that they should find their way to the American 'discernment' house if they wanted a ticket to gay-friendly seminaries in the United State. ll they had to do was go to the house, pass a sexual test with one or more American priests and then begin the process to receive a visa to the United States for further seminary training. In the United States, they were distributed throughout a number of U.S. seminaries along the eastern seaboard, and again, an independent investigation has confirmed various bishops came to know of this and did nothing. Approximately three or four years later, the archdiocese of Newark shut down the Columbian house when the homosexual activity involving American priests and the young Columbians was discovered, as this would cause great embarrassment to the archdiocese if it ever became public. But that didn't bring an end to the scandalous behavior — it merely shifted it. . .In 2012, this issue of the South American gay pipeline came to a head when various complaints of homosexual activity and sexual abuse became known at Holy Apostles Seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut — in the diocese of Norwich — after some there reported that a large number of Colombian and U.S. seminarians were involved in regular homosexual activity. . ." Episcopal Sodomy: Gay Seminarian Pipeline

[sockmonkey]

From memory..wasn’t Grahmann Bishop, and didn’t Kos have 1200 victims?

[Dogbert41]

By the way, those lololo weren't meant to mean laughing. Poor choice to put between my quote of your post and mine.

I should have used XXXXX s or something...

[longfellowsmuse]

It’s not just the elderly that go to daily mass, and they don’t go to see the priest they go to receive the body and blood of Christ.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

I guess they’re importing the queers now

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

I think you are wise keeping that away from him

[Ouchthatonehurt]

“How does a Catholic tithe without knowing their $ is being used to pay for the silence of vicims?‘
They don’t…not anymore.

[Notthereyet]

As a former Catholic, I opine that those Catholics that tithe do know where the monies go. One phrase will bring most tithers back under control: Loss of Sacraments. Lose priests and you lose the Sacraments. Lose the Sacraments and you go to Hell. Many, many, devout Catholics live with that fear. Have seen it over the decades, been in discussions with many people and family on both sides. Very devastating to know people are put in the positions of depending upon keeping perverts in charge just to keep receiving the Sacraments.

[trebb]

Had that happen with a girlfriend in the car back in the late ‘60s.....