Posted on 05/02/2002 7:48:10 AM PDT by history_matters
ATLANTIC CITY - Three years before his death in 2001, a priest said he wanted to end "the silence of the decades" regarding alleged sexual abuse by his colleagues in the Camden Diocese.
So Monsignor Salvatore J. Adamo, then 78, went to the office of an attorney who had filed a class-action suit on behalf of victims and gave an affidavit in which he said the diocese promoted homosexual priests and ignored allegations of abuse to avoid moral responsibility and financial liability.
He said the late Bishop George Guilfoyle - who he said was known as "the Queen of the Fairies" - put his lovers in high positions in the diocese.
"As the years of my earthly journey are ebbing, I am compelled to speak the truth as to the germination of tragic incidents of pedophilia and sexual abuse that is known to have become incessantly rampant within the Diocese of Camden throughout the decades," Adamo said.
"I share years of personal knowledge and observations as a priest of the Diocese of Camden and servant of the Lord in rendering my opinion. I do so not to disgrace anyone or anyone's memory. I do so in the interests of disclosing the truth, to the extent that I know it, and in the interests of vindicating the victims of abuse," Adamo said.
The suit, which is being litigated in Superior Court, was filed in 1994 by 18 people who say they were molested by priests. It accused the diocese of covering up the abuse and in at least one case, transferring an accused priest to a new parish as a show of faith in his innocence.
Among the defendant priests is retired Monsignor Philip Rigney, 85, who allegedly molested two altar boy brothers for years.
Adamo's 1998 affidavit contains no details of firsthand knowledge of the alleged abuse and was barred from being admitted as testimony in the case.
It does appear in court documents.
"It is full of unsubstantiated claims and untruths," said Andrew Walton, a diocesan spokesman. Adamo was an "angry, bitter man" who had lingering resentment over having been passed up for promotions, Walton said.
Adamo served as executive editor of the diocese's weekly newspaper - the Catholic Star Herald - before being fired by Guilfoyle in 1977. He left the priesthood in 1991. He died in January 2001 of pneumonia.
According to his affidavit:
* Once Guilfoyle became bishop, there was a noticeable change in regard to "sexual expression in the Diocese. ... Guilfoyle's sexual preference was apparent. [He] came to be referred to as the 'Queen of the Fairies.' He was ... prone to promote his alleged male 'lovers.'"
* His "spiritual adviser" was the Rev. Patrick Weaver, an alleged pedophile who Adamo said was protected by the diocese "to avoid scandal and to cover up the record in Rome."
* Rigney served as Guilfoyle's "pimp," using his position as director of vocations for the diocese to fill vacancies with "priests having a homosexual propensity."
* Guilfoyle's successor, Bishop James T. McHugh, coerced Adamo into remaining silent on the topic, threatening to remove him as pastor of St. Vincent Palloti parish in Haddon Township and withhold pension money.
Walton would not comment Tuesday on the Adamo affidavit's allegations specifically, but disputed the assertion that McHugh tried to silence Adamo.
"Bishop McHugh wrote to him to insist that he stop writing about some of these issues because he so consistently and repeatedly misrepresented and mischaracterized the church's position on a whole range of issues," he said.
Walton noted that after Guilfoyle died in 1991, Adamo praised him as a gentleman and a model Christian in a newspaper column.
"Bishop Guilfoyle goes into eternity with the sign of the cross etched on his soul. He deserved to be loved more than he was," Adamo wrote in the column.
Rigney could not be reached for comment. A woman who answered the telephone at his home in Palm Beach County, Fla., hung up.
St. Raphael, Healer, Pray for history_matters to obtain the Grace of Healing in both body and soul.
Please give us updates, h-m. God be with you.
Well, it seems that many fine people are taking Jim's actions way too personally and are taking themselves way too seriously.
Anybody's who is interested in things religious and specifically Catholic can come over here. It's just a mouse click away.
I'm just not getting the pouting.
I don't mind honest Catholics wanting to know the extent of the problem, and actually, I think in some ways it has been beneficial to my evangelical efforts. It has motivated me to spread my knowledge and beliefs, much moreso than before this happened. I believe in the end this whole situation will strengthen my church and she will be led to new glories.
Hi restornu,
Let me try to explain something. I'll use an illustration to help.
I'm a foot doctor. Last week, a patient came to me with a swollen foot. They had stepped on a toothpick 3 months ago, but thought they got it all out.
However, a piece remained. The patient's foot only started to show signs of a problem 2 months after she stepped on the toothpick.
It got red, hot and swollen. And it hurt. A lot. She even had a fever.
What is going on in the media is the fever telling us the body of Christ is sick. There is all the signs of an infection, that must be cleared away.
I treated my patient by removing the piece of toothpick. It was not large, but it really hurt to get it out, and there was a lot of foul looking and smelling stuff that came out with it.
Would I have done my patient any good by telling her to go home, that there really was no problem, despite all the obvious signs?
To look at her foot, you couldn't tell it was in there because you couldn't see the toothpick under all the layers the body had formed over and around it. But I had to cut through those layers to expose it and remove it.
Now, it will take a while, but the wound will heal.
But it would have gotten far worse if I had told her to go home because there was no real problem.
By the way, her family doctor had tried but failed to remove it. He just didn't have the tools or the courage to cut deep enough to get to the root of the problem.
In our Church, there is a deep infection, a deep abscess, with a foreign body at its root.
That foreign body is homosexuality.
The family docs are the bishops and cardinals.
But they just don't have the tools or the courage to cut deep enough to get to the root of the problem. In some cases, they are the problem.
In this age, by God's Providence, it has been given to the laity to take the initiative to cut out the foreign body and all that ugly stuff surrounding it.
God is handing us, the laity, the scalpel and the hemostats.
We see the fever and the depth of the sickness, and He is relying on us to remove it. The hierarchy has proven themselves unwilling or unable.
Without FReedom of the press, here on FRee Republic and elsewhere, we are being robbed of some of our most important surgical instruments needed to remove this deeply imbedded toothpick and all the pus and fever surrounding it.
Please do not criticize the laity who are trying to open the abscess and drain it.
It might look like we intend to hurt the patient. But this is the only thing that will save it.
So what is the alternative? If there is none then I would be content discussing these issues on the Religion Forum/Ghetto. Though I mostly just read and don't contribute very much. It can't be a bad place with the likes of Askel5, patent, and yourself here. (lots of others too, but I can't bring their screen names to my mind without a little thought). If you all leave though, the ghetto will be a dismal place.
Sinkspur probably hates my Calvinism... but he is just going to have to put up with the fact that I agree with him.
Some of my Calvinist brethren also feared that the "Religion Forum" would be a "ghetto". I disagreed with them then; I disagree with them now.
Far from it. On Free Republic, Jim Robinson has established a Forum in which Conservatives may freely discuss the two subjects which are always forbidden at Liberal Cocktail Parties -- Politics and Religion.
I love Free Republic for having provided this "venting ground" for otherwise "incorrect" Free Speech. If the Owner of the Forum thinks it best for the Forum's health to categorize the Forums according to interest, that's fine by me. And if anyone thinks that the "Religion Forum" is a "ghetto"... so what?? It is, after all "only a mouse click away".
I ain't "sucking up" to either Jim Robinson or sinkspur in saying this; both of them have had their disagreements with me of late -- and well, so be it.
I just happen to agree with them here.
The Religion Forum is a great place to come and discuss Religious Matters. So if you don't feel like arguing Campaign Finance Reform today, come on over...
It's only a mouse-click away.
Without FReedom of the press, here on FRee Republic and elsewhere, we are being robbed of some of our most important surgical instruments needed to remove this deeply imbedded toothpick and all the pus and fever surrounding it.
Please do not criticize the laity who are trying to open the abscess and drain it.
It might look like we intend to hurt the patient. But this is the only thing that will save it.
I, for one, hope you won't do that, Jim. I think it is more likely that one can carry on an intelligent and undisrupted discussion on these issues if there is a separate forum. Flame wars, particularly religious flame wars, do no credit to their participants, nor to FR. Those who feel that threads in the Religion Forum are not getting enough exposure can always post links in the News forum to threads in the Religion forum. Would it be possible to implement a "Religion" sidebar, similar to the "News/Activism" sidebar, which those who are interested can turn on?
I hope that my fellow Catholics would realize that the moderators may not be aware of our concerns and priorities, and must make decisions based upon their own personal experience. They may not have religious convictions at all, and may have a different opinion of what constitutes "news", what constitutes "doctrine", what constitutes legitimate differences of opinion, and what constitutes bashing. I very much appreciate Mr. Robinson's statement that he opposes the gratuitous denegration of the Catholic Church, and thank him for giving us a place where we can discuss our faith, and the crisis we are presently facing.
Well, apparently the old way is not an alternative so I guess this is all that remains.
However, the real alternative, is to apply equally the de facto censorship going on with Catholic threads in the News Forum.
Too many threads that obviously belong in the News Forum have been exiled to the Religion Forum. Too many are obvious news stories that should not have been arbitrarily moved.
And other threads that are obviously Religion Forum material, such as the Daily Prayer for Bush threads, remain in the News Forum.
I highly doubt if we started a Daily Rosary and Novena For Bush thread, that in the current climate here at FR it would remain long in the News Forum.
thus my observation that there is a patronizing censorship going on here that is sliding into an institutionalized anti-Catholic bias.
Respectfully, if the Moderators pull anything that has anything to do with Religion over to the Religion Forum, it's okay by me.
My own position is that the Church must be Reformed in order to have a positive impact on Political Society.
And since Religious Conservatives disagree over what this entails, having a separate Forum to discuss it makes sense to me.
When y'all have become good Presbyterians like the old Revolutionist Rev. John Witherspoon (grin), we can then ask Jim to re-combine the Forums for the purpose of melding Religious Activism and Political Activism. As long as the Church is still "sorting out" what "Religious Activism" must necessarily mean, the provision of a separate forum for discussion of the matter makes every bit as much sense to me as a "News/Politics" Forum provides for Libertarian/Conservative argumentation of what "Political Activism" should necessarily mean.
I.M.H.O.
Good grief, Brian... would you not feel that a "Daily Prayer for the Calvinist Reformation of the Apostate American Church" Thread in the News Forum would amount to an "institutionalized Anti-Catholic Bias"??
There's good reason for the churches to discuss these matters in the Religion Forum.
We can and should ask for that right now! Unfortunately, this is the crux of the matter. There is no thing as conservatism without religion, namely Christianity, in this country.
To separate the two is to sound the death knell for conservatism. To act as if they can be separated and still expect conservative principles to stand on their own is naive.
To actively separate them is antithetical to any true conservatism.
Any "Conservative" political movement in America must be animated by a continual reference to, and analysis of, the intersection between faith and politics.
"Conservatism" needs definition on a forum like this:
Main Entry: con·ser·va·tism
Pronunciation: k&n-'s&r-v&-"ti-z&m
Function: noun
Date: 1835
1 capitalized a : the principles and policies of a Conservative party b : the Conservative party
2 a : disposition in politics to preserve what is established b : a political philosophy based on tradition and social stability, stressing established institutions, and preferring gradual development to abrupt change
3 : the tendency to prefer an existing or traditional situation to change
Personally I believe that a political philosophy based on tradition and social stability, stressing established institutions in America is, by definition, based on Judeo-Christian tradition and social stability.
Therefore, I do not shy away from calling those self proclaimed conservatives here on FreeRepublic.com "A Conservative News Forum" back to the very roots of that "Conservatism, " namely Judeo-Christian principles and belief. Christianity is integral to the continuance of Conservatism in America and thus The Necessity for Christianity on Free Republic.
I would like to see an ongoing, charitable discussion and debate on the defintion of, and basis/roots of, the "Conservative" aspect of FreeRepublic.com "A Conservative News Forum."
And that can only happen when the two are not artificially segregated.
Just ask Johnathan Edwards.
There's good reason for the "Religion Forum". The American Church is not what it was at this Nation's Founding. And the American Church, at this nation's founding, had an enormously positive impact on American Republicanism.
To reclaim that Precedent, and enjoy again God's Favor on this land, the American Church must be Reformed to what it once was.
The Religious Forum is an ideal environment for such considerations.
Well, this is at least a start at a clarification.
But which is it you do not want,
1)Religious discussions,
2)discussion of news articles regarding the scandals in the RCC, or
3) Both?
My suggestions only...
If you do not want any Religious discussions, that is fine. Its your forum. Remove that option.
If you only do not want news threads regarding the crisis in the Church, fine. Delete them all (but don't exile them to the Religion Forum, that's a double standard. If they're not good enough for the News Forum, they don't belong in the Religion Forum.)
If its both, then remove the Religion Forum, and ban all threads from the News Forum in any way related not only to the scandal but to religion in general.
But no one wants any of these options.
So all that is left is a humble appeal for a more even handed and just application of standards regarding WHY and WHEN threads are pulled from the News Forum, and placed in the Religion Forum.
Some explanations and guidelines would help.
We can and should --- but American Christianity, is that Christianity known as Calvinism.
As the old "Jefferson Starship" rock-n-roll tune has it... "We built this City."
Calvinism conceived the very idea of such a thing as, "America". She is Our Baby. More than any other Creed, she is our charge, our responsibility, before the judgments of a Holy God. WE are responsible for this Ship of State. Her Sins will be held against OUR Presbytery, if we fail.
The very fact that you might disagree with this statement, elucidates the virtue of the Religion Forum.
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