New York Archdiocese Responds to Cardinal Spellman Groping Allegation

The National Catholic Register ^ | 2/12/19 | Kevin Jones

[marshmallow]

Lucian K. Truscott IV, a longtime journalist and writer, made the claim about the former archbishop of New York in a Feb. 9 essay.

NEW YORK CITY — The Archdiocese of New York has said it had only recently learned of an allegation that the deeply influential Cardinal Francis Spellman groped a visiting West Point cadet in the 1960s, but says it will take the accusation seriously and has invited the accuser to contact the archdiocese.

“This is the first time we have learned of this allegation and take what the writer says seriously, as we do all allegations of abuse or inappropriate conduct,” Joseph Zwilling, director of communications for the Archdiocese of New York, told CNA Feb. 11. “We have never had a substantiated allegation of abuse against Cardinal Spellman, who died in 1967.”

Lucian K. Truscott IV, a longtime journalist and writer, made the claim about the former archbishop of New York in a Feb. 9 essay at Salon.

According to Truscott, the alleged incident took place in 1967 in Spellman’s private quarters behind St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Truscott said he was a junior at West Point who had sought to interview Spellman for the cadet magazine, The Pointer.

In Truscott’s account, apparently written decades after the fact, he was in a sitting room with the 77-year-old Spellman, his monsignor assistant and two other West Point cadets, including the magazine’s photographer. Even before the interview began, Spellman placed his hand on the cadet’s thigh and attempted to grope him, Truscott said.

According to Truscott, the monsignor intervened, chastised the cardinal and placed the cardinal’s hand back in the lap. Truscott said this happened several times during the interview.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Sounds like he had dementia. Died not long after.

[centurion316]

I know Lucian Truscott IV. I would not believe anything that this scum says, including a claim that the Sun appears every morning in the Eastern sky.

[apoliticalone]

The Commie propaganda machine are trying to take out Christians. If these were Muslims, etc there would not be a peep in media.

[gcparent]

59 years ago????

[laplata]

“I know Lucian Truscott IV. I would not believe anything that this scum says, including a claim that the Sun appears every morning in the Eastern sky”.

I agree. His grandfather, General Lucian Truscott was one of our finest WW II Division, Corps and Army commanders and he would not be happy with his grandson.

[centurion316]

Certainly the left is trying to destroy Christianity. But, I left the Episcopal Church because they abandoned the teachings of Christianity and I have the same issue with the Catholic Church who have turned a blind eye to homosexuality within the clergy and the seminaries.

[Williams]

Ok there was a monsignor there who kept telling him to stop. Either this was a Monty Python routine, or a feeble and confused old man. Hardly an “accusation”.

[Salvation]

Many of the accusations against priests are dated that far back. Most are not proven.

[Fedora]

Don't know about this particular allegation, but the allegations against Spellman go back decades--for instance: "In the original bound galleys of former Wall Street Journal reporter John Cooney's Spellman biography, The American Pope, published in 1984 by Times Books, which was then owned by the New York Times Co., Spellman's gay life was recounted in four pages that included interviews with several notable individuals who knew Spellman as a closeted homosexual. . .The archdiocese, however, went ballistic when presented with the information, and became determined to keep it from being published. . .As Cooney describes it, he was soon told by his editors at Times Books that his sourcing wasn't good enough, and that the four pages would have to be cut. He could keep a paragraph that alluded to the 'rumors,' but he would have to state that the rumors had been strongly contested by many people, even though, in his research, that had not truly been the case. . .The dutiful Times then had another former U.S. ambassador to Ireland and friend of the Church, William V. Shannon, review The American Pope for the Book Review. Shannon's review was scathing, attacking Cooney for even bringing the subject up at all. . ." Cardinal Spellman's Dark Legacy I can add that Spellman was close to the Kennedy family and was being closely monitored by the intelligence community--his FBI and CIA files are interesting, from what I've seen.

[wideminded]

Whether Mr. Truscott is telling the truth about a particular incident is a separate question from whether Cardinal Spellman may earlier have had an active non-celibate lifestyle.

[xkaydet65]

51 years ago. I was a junior at Fordhan College working at WFUV.Two of us were supposed to go to MSG to cover the Knicks presser introducing Bill Hradley as he had finished his Oxford time, but we had three Sony tape machines and each one had been handed out to cover Spellman’s viewing. I had a perfectly good Craig machine but it was home with no way to get it in time. So that’s my memory of Spellman’s death. That and 7 years earlier we were dedicating the new parish convent for the Sisters of Charity and I was Master of Ceremonies as senior 8th grade altar boy. My assgt was to greet each arriving priest and direct him to where he would get robed for the ceremony. It was a lotbof “Hello Father let me show you where to go.” When this short white haired priest arrived in a plain priestly garb, approached me and held out his hand. I grabbed and shook it and said “ Hi ya Father. I’ll show you where to dress.” It was Spellman , holding his hand for me to kiss his ring. Our pastor was not pleased, nor was Cardinal Spellman.

[Rockingham]

Spellman apparently also helped to develop and protect a network of homosexual allies in seminaries and other key positions in the Catholic Church in the US.

[BlackVeil]

That’s a very good anecdote - and it conveys the spirit of the time. It is vivid, mentions names and particulars, and conveys an impression of being genuine.

[Fedora]

Randy Engel has compiled some information on that in her multi-volume study The Rite of Sodomy, as summarized here: "Perhaps the most riveting chapter in The Rite of Sodomy is Chapter 12, 'The Cardinal O'Connell and Cardinal Spellman Legacy,' covering fully one hundred pages of text before another twenty-three pages of 410 chapter notes. . . .An 'open secret' is a secret hidden in plain sight. The homosexual lives of Francis Cardinal Spellman of New York and William Cardinal O'Connell of boston were just such a secret, and remained so even after their deaths. . . .In the case of Cardinal Spellman and Cardinal O'Connell and other homosexual prelates named in this chapter, power was, in fact, handed down from above to other homosexual members of the Catholic clergy, not just for one but for multiple generations, with consequences beyond imaging. . .Mrs. Engel then spends considerable time discussing the allegations concerning Francis Cardinal Spellman's private life of perversion, which will not be repeated here. Indeed, that part of Chapter 12 of The Rite of Sodomy is but a prelude to the remaining 550 pages of text in the book, material that documents the extensive network of sodomites in the hierarchy and the priesthood of the conciliar structures. Having covered a few of the stories for The Wanderer between 1992 and 2000--and having followed the others very closely over the years, I can say that Mrs. Engel has done quite a massive job of research to piece together the evidence of the spread of Homosexual Collective in one diocese after another, which entails six chapters in the book.": Understanding a Cesspool of Corruption (2006)

[Captain Peter Blood]

I know how you feel about the Episcopal Church. I grew up in that church when it used to be the most Conservative of all the Protestant Faiths. Almost 40 years ago, maybe even further back, it started moving Left ever so slightly then bang it became Radical.

The last three Presiding Bishops have been so far left and changed the church to the worst, I no longer recognize it. Same with the Catholics, it seems to be careening Left also.

I now just try and have my own personal relationship with God and have forsaken the organized churches.

[centurion316]

I am in the same boat. I spent 25 years as an Infantry Officer in the U.S. Army. I served on the vestry of a parish in Weisbaden Germany that belonged to the London Diocese of the Anglican church and the Episcopal Church of the U.S. I wrote a letter to the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church of the U.S. to object to his support for the murder of Kuwaitis by the Iraqis and his condemnation of the decision of the United States to use force to reverse this atrocity. He demonstrated that he had abandoned Christianity in favor of Secular Progressiveness.

[Biggirl]

Not surprised this came out. Tip of the iceberg.

[piusv]

Truscott said he now wishes he hadn’t laughed off the experience and wishes he had reported it instead, given revelations about sex abuse in the Church.

He laughed it off? What heterosexual man would laugh that off?

[Jaded]

Once the Catholics are gone, the rest will be easy.