Archbishop choice seen as imminent: Pittsburgh's bishop called top candidate

Boston Globe ^ | June 8, 2003 | Walter V. Robinson and Michael Rezendes

[tridentine]

The appointment of Boston's new archbishop is imminent, according to knowledgeable church officials, who said that Bishop Richard G. Lennon knows he is about to be replaced and the archdiocese has already identified at least three sites that may be used for the announcement.

In interviews last week, church officials said they believe that Pope John Paul II's choice to head the most troubled of American archdioceses is likely to be made public this month, with this Tuesday the earliest possible date.

And some church officials privy to internal discussions said they now believe that -- even if the decision has not been finalized -- the most likely choice is Bishop Donald W. Wuerl of Pittsburgh.

[sinkspur]

I just got a very reliable bit of information that Bishop Francis Essex High School in the Newark Archdiocese won't reopen in the fall due to lack of money!

If this is true, it puts the construction of a $650,000 house with a pool for the archbishop in a whole new light.

It reminds me of the Speaker of the Texas House of Represenatatives redecorating his office to the tune of $1.2 million while cutting services.

No matter the justification, both are brain-dead PR moves.

[dsc]

I'm not going to get into this kind of a peeing contest with you, either. I'm going to address just a few things, then turn in.

"If you are going to cut and paste, you should at least try to provide the more important details."

I did better than that. I provided the links.

"you have left the impression that all was to be forgiven, and the priest would just sort of get back to normal."

The section of the article I posted contains the words, "on a substitute basis."

"'Since then our sexual abuse policy has been revised so that no one removed from priestly ministry can be reinstated,' Kenny said."

Myers should have done that from day one. How could he even think of reinstating a priest who had molested a young teenager? Looks to me like he got away with what he could while he could.

"Of course, you have left out the part that the abuse happened long before Bishop Myers became bishop of Peoria, that the case was reported to Bishop Myers years after it happened"

Nonsense. The portion of the article I posted contained the dates.

"and after the statute of limitations had run"

Oh, really? What's the statute of limitations on defrocking?

"and that it was Bishop Myers who disciplined the priest, and removed him from active ministry."

And you consider that adequate, in light of the 1961 prohibition on ordaining SSAD sufferers?

"And it was Bishop Myers, who, when he thought to have the priest perform very limited ministerial functions (limited to saying Mass only when there was no other priest to say it) after nine years of suspension"

I am aghast that he did not have that priest defrocked. That he would even in a nightmare consider allowing him to celebrate Mass is an abomination.

"also, after reflecting on Koenigs' protest, stopped even that."

After somebody blew the whistle on him, you mean.

"And, it was under Bishop Myers that the policy was changed, to forbid abusing priests from ever being reinstated to active ministry."

Only after he realized he wasn't going to get away with protecting them any more.

"say he left "a mess", regarding the seven priests cited by AlguyA in this thread, for the next bishop. But no evidence is offered of that."

You don't think seven homosexual priests is a mess? Amazing.

"Well, as AlguyA has pointed out IN THIS THREAD, the accusers DIDN'T EVEN COME FORTH UNTIL AFTER BISHOP MYERS LEFT PEORIA."

What do you mean, "left Peoria?" The article I posted said that Koenigs went to him while he still had the diocese. You yourself pointed out that Myers changed the policy when Mrs. Koenigs raised a fuss.

"And it was pointed out to you. Yet you chose to repeat already-discredited calumny."

The only thing you've discredited here is your own objectivity.

"AlguyA has provided actual information, actual facts, which clears Archbishop Myers in these cases."

Buncombe. Myers had a diocese with seven priests that needed to be fired--eight if you count the and one that he tried to ease back into active service--and he utterly failed to deal with it.

"Until you actually have some real evidence, some actual facts, to show that Archbishop Myers did wrong in Peoria, could you please stop spewing calumny against the man?"

I don't intend to make Archbishop Myers my life's work, but when you put together his treatment of the one known molester, his failure (apparently even to try) to weed out others, and the bizzaro behavior of putting in a swimming pool, a person is entitled to go "hmmmm."

"It was contemptible."

I withdraw my apology, with regret at having wasted it on such a sorry specimen of humanity.

"the evidence also shows that he got the message on reinstatement."

Looks to me like he had the whistle blown on him, read the prevailing winds, and took cover.

"Why? This one, I don't understand. It may be that swimming is part of his daily exercise regimen. Swimming is an excellent form of exercise"

Yes, it is, but home swimming pools are intrinsically sybaritic. Expensive to build, expensive to maintain, and private--in the worst sense of the word.

I would expect a priest to build a pool that many could use, and take the bit of extra trouble to use it himself...unless he had some reason to want that privacy.

"To put a very nice pool in the backyard will run about $20,000 - $50,000."

$50,000 is well above the median annual income. How much more bang for the buck would the Church have gotten if he'd raised a little more and put in a Catholic youth center with a pool?

"Though the latter reading is grammatically more likely, the former reading is more charitable toward you."

Actually, while the latter reading is grammatically possible, only the former reading makes any sense at all.

"Yet, regrettably, it shows your own lack of charity toward the archbishop."

Perhaps. Lack of charity is a sin I often commit. I've been sitting here trying to think up a scenario in which that pool isn't suspicious, especially in light of his treatment of a known molester and apparent lack of zeal in identifying others...and I just can't come up with one.

Since my knees went bad, I have used pools of various sizes for lap swimming, and IMO for any kind of efficient exercise, you need at least 25 meters of length. Ever seen a 25-meter pool in a back yard?

[ELS]

Bishop Francis Essex High School in the Newark Archdiocese won't reopen in the fall due to lack of money!

Yes, that is true. There was an article about it, in response to an article in a secular paper, in a recent issue of The Catholic Advocate, the diocesan newspaper. I looked for it on the Web site, but couldn't find it and I've already gotten rid of the hard copy I had. There's a chance it might be in the next issue posted online.

Anyway, the article in the diocesan paper said that the Archdiocese had been contributing on the order of $100,000 per year into the school's budget and couldn't continue doing so indefinitely. The school was not successful at finding a balance between expenses and income.

[sinkspur]

Anyway, the article in the diocesan paper said that the Archdiocese had been contributing on the order of $100,000 per year into the school's budget and couldn't continue doing so indefinitely.

The Archbishop found a better use for the money.

[Notwithstanding]

I am glad to see that - unlike every decision made by the Klintons - for the archdiocese of Newark, PR is not the driving force behind every decision.

[sinkspur]

I am glad to see that - unlike every decision made by the Klintons - for the archdiocese of Newark, PR is not the driving force behind every decision.

When it comes to new digs for the Archbishop or educating kids, educating kids is apparently not much of a driving force, either.

[Notwithstanding]

Proving, of course, on this thin "evidence" that Archbishop Myers is a big-spending hypocrite.

Wow - you have it nailed.


(Funny, you have no details about why he change his residence, yet you know it all. You have every rectory and every chancery office bugged, I am sure. I would bet his former home has been converted for better use. But of course that does not fit into your scheme. I would even bet that a NEW facility that would accomodate the NEW use of his former home would have cost much more to buy or build than the home he bought.)

[sinkspur]

Proving, of course, on this thin "evidence" that Archbishop Myers is a big-spending hypocrite.

Well, if I have a pile of money in front of me ($650,000, to be exact), and it can keep a Catholic High School open for the next six years, or it can go to a new house for me, complete with swimming pool, what would you call me if I decided to spend the money on myself?

[Notwithstanding]

What facts do you have:

about the new use for his former residence?
about his new home?
about the reason for the new home?
about why it is in a new location?
about this alleged pool and the reason for it?

Facts?
Any?
Any that are damning?

[Notwithstanding]

Please post your source on the alleged swimming pool.

Please post your source on the cost of housing in Newark.

Please post your source on the house being used solely for housing one archbishop in decadent style.

[Notwithstanding]

This is a sound decision.

"Over the last 10 years, the archdiocese has spent $5 million subsidizing the school [Bishop Francis Essex High School]. Enrollment dipped to 273 students this year from 411 in 1996, the archdiocese has said. During the same period, overall enrollment in the 37 other Catholic high schools within the diocese increased to 16,477 from 15,945."

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Bishop+Francis+Essex+High+School&sa=N&tab=wn

[sinkspur]

What facts do you have:

A Catholic high school is closing.
That Catholic high school needs $100,000 from the diocese to stay open.
The archbishop built himself a new house.
The cost of the archbishop's house could have kept the school open for another six years.

Those are the facts I have. Surely there are some rectories with empty rooms within the Archdiocese that could have met Myers' standards so that some kids could get a Catholic education.

If you go the Star-Ledger website, you'll find an article that indicates that Myers continues to refuse to meet with sexual abuse victims. Why would he do that? Why would he not meet with people who have been abused by priests?

These bishops should, as an act of penance for covering up and abetting this abuse, have to sit and listen to abuse victims pour out their anger, and tears, and hatred, and questions for as long as they want to.

Some bishops have done this, but most haven't, including cowards like Weakland and Mahoney. And Myers.

[sinkspur]

Please post your source on the alleged swimming pool.

ELS

Please post your source on the cost of housing in Newark.

ELS will have to do that. But the archbishop's house is not in Newark.

Please post your source on the house being used solely for housing one archbishop in decadent style.

Decadent is your word. I never used it.

[Notwithstanding]

Get the facts.

The schools has drained $500,000 a year from archdiocesean coffers over the last 10 years.

This is a no brainer.

Other archdiocesean schools are increasing enrollment while this one's enrollment is sharply dropping.

Its called effective stewardship of funds.

Did he build himself a new house?
Did he buy one?
Did he buy an old house?
What did he do with his old house?
Is his old house being put to more efficient use?
Is his old house being used to house a program or offices, the facilities for which would be cost-prohibitive to build new?

You have no clue.

Yet you snipe about the bishop - not having any real facts at hand.

[Notwithstanding]

I see - you are into the Kumbaya group-hug crap now.
And you support the Voice of the Faithful types.

[Notwithstanding]

No bishop should meet with the Call to Action /SNAP /Voice of the Faithful Crowd - when their agenda is simply to embarass bishops and force homsexual ordination, female ordination, abortion, and birth control.

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---

December 2002 Call to Action News

CTA members, regions organize as sex abuse crisis rages on

The Catholic bishops met in Washington, D.C. Nov. 11-14, hoping to restore their credibility and bring an end to the greatest scandal in the history of the U.S. Church. Instead, they weakened policies crafted in Dallas. Among the changes, they reinstated the canonical statute of limitations, reneged on their commitment to refer all allegations to civil authorities, and underlined the merely advisory capacity of lay review boards. (Details about the revised norms are on CTA's website: www.cta-usa.org/press/weakening.html)

Then came early December's appalling revelations of Cardinal Law's personal communications with known priest-perpetrators, the report from Cleveland of over 1,000 victims of sexual abuse, and the California bishops' preparations for at least 400 new civil suits. It becomes increasingly obvious that the hierarchy cannot be trusted to solve this problem. Their record of protecting priest-perpetrators at the expense of children's safety is conclusive. Major financial contributors, reform groups, victim-survivors, and the National Review Board for the Protection of Children and Young People are all now on record demanding disclosure and accountability from the bishops on their handling of clergy sexual abuse allegations. Commentators and active Catholics, conservatives as well as progressives, are approaching a consensus: the laity must rise up and take responsibility for reforming the Church.

Conference stirs activism
CTA members are at work. Drawing on their long history of prayer and protest, hundreds of CTAers from over 80 dioceses have volunteered to work on CTA's campaign for full disclosure. Following up on the work of CTA regional leadership, more than 70 people gathered for a three-hour workshop on campaign organizing at the national conference. They heard personal testimony by Barbara Blaine, founder and president of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), and analysis by Tom Doyle, OP, the canon lawyer whose 1985 warning about the crisis was roundly ignored by the U.S. bishops. Participants then worked in small groups planning local actions for full disclosure. During the plenary session Sunday, Mary Ann Mueninghoff, OP, CTA president, announced that letters were being mailed from the conference to every U.S. bishop, demanding full disclosure of each diocese's experience of clergy sexual abuse of minors . In response, hundreds more signed up to support the campaign in their home dioceses.
Already, CTA organizers in Buffalo, Belleville, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Omaha, and San Diego have attracted media attention. "Until bishops show a willingness to engage in a full dialogue with the laity regarding values and appropriate processes of democracy (including openly sharing information and accepting responsibility), the basic problems will not be solved," wrote CTA Nebraska chair, Patty Hawk, in an Omaha World Herald op-ed.

Meetings with local bishops
In addition, Belleville, Indianapolis, Erie and San Diego members have secured meetings with their respective bishops. CTA San Diego chair, Janet Mansfield, told the New York Times, "Now is a good time for lay organizing because there's a vulnerability there on the part of the bishops, and they're a little more open." CTA leaders in Chicago and Boston are working with kindred organizations and parish-based groups to secure episcopal accountability.

Calls from the laity, the press, and state's attorneys are yielding some results. The bishops of Baltimore, Phoenix, Louisville, Belleville, Cleveland and Louisville have all made some level of disclosure. But CTA urges more action from its members. "We must have a full accounting of the scope of this scandal in every diocese," said Claire Noonan, campaign coordinator. "The laity will not go back to a passive acceptance of the bishop's word. We will take responsibility for ensuring that our children are protected, to determine that our money is spent justly and wisely, and to insist that our leaders are open with us."

| CTA News |

[sinkspur]

I see - you are into the Kumbaya group-hug crap now.

No. Actually, I'm coldly calculating that a bit of compassion shown by these bishops might cause some of these abuse victims to call off their lawyers.

I guess you think it's hunky-dory that these guys are setting you and me up to shell out millions of dollars in settlements, settlements to cover their mafia-like behavior.

[sinkspur]

SNAP is not part of CTA. However, if CTA members are the only ones who will listen to them, that's who they'll talk to.

Make no mistake about it: the bishops are the bad guys in this drama, and they will keep looking like the bad guys as long as they're lawyered up.

[ELS]

My source for the purchase of the house and swimming pool is priests of the archdiocese of Newark. News travels very fast on the priest grapevine and may not be on the radar screen of local news media (yet). You are free to take their word or not. I choose to believe them.

Cost of living data is available online. You might try sites devoted to relocation or economic data.

[Notwithstanding]

Jim Goodness (973) 497-4186 goodneja@rcan.org

For Release: June 6, 2003

Archdiocese Responds to SNAP Statements at June 5 Press Conference
In response to erroneous statements made by Mark Serrano, a board member of the group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, at a press conference on June 5, James Goodness, director of communications and public relations for the Archdiocese of Newark, issued the following:

Claims by the group SNAP that the Archdiocese of Newark and Archbishop Myers have not been responsive to people who have brought allegations of abuse to our attention, and that the Archdiocese has not acted to address these allegations, clearly and maliciously disregard the facts and history of the Archdiocese’s procedures for handling such claims.

In 1993, long before this heightened attention to the issue of abuse by members of the clergy, the Archdiocese of Newark instituted a review board of lay people – with medical, psychological, law enforcement, investigation and legal experience – to investigate all claims of morally inappropriate conduct by members of the clergy. In the ten years since its institution, this group of committed and professional laypeople has remained the primary tool for the Archdiocese, and the Archbishop of Newark, to evaluate allegations of sexual misconduct by clergy. The offer of counseling and other services as needed have been an integral part of the process for those who have come to the Church for justice, support and healing. We have offered it willingly. Today, as part of the current procedures for the review board, the Archdiocese immediately offers counseling even before the lay review board undertakes any investigation. The Archdiocese is now seeking to institute a group support program for victims based on specific requests of people who have taken advantage of the counseling services that the Church offers.

Since the sexual abuse crisis began, Archbishop Myers has on many occasions, publicly and privately, reaffirmed his own commitment and that of the Archdiocese of Newark to investigate allegations and work to heal those who have been abused. He has called on people who have suffered from sexual abuse to bring their stories forward so that the Church and the civil authorities can act. Mr. Serrano and SNAP need only look through television, radio and print interviews, the Archdiocesan website and any number of other publicly available media sources for evidence of his statements and his commitment.

Mr. Serrano and SNAP only need to contact the prosecutors in the four counties of the Archdiocese to see that, indeed, the Church has sought and obtained information about alleged sexual abuse by clergy, and has reported it to authorities for possible criminal action. In fact, the Archdiocese has provided prosecutors with information about allegations dating back some 50 years. Almost all of this information has come to the Archdiocese only since the heightened attention began some 18 months ago.

They also can look no further than the Archdiocese’s own newspaper, The Catholic Advocate, as well as a videotape that Archbishop Myers sent to parishes in the Archdiocese immediately after the US Conference of Catholic Bishops meeting in Dallas in June 2002 for his commitment.

A number of priests of this Archdiocese remain on administrative leave because the review board and/or the prosecutors’ offices have not completed their investigations, further evidence that the Archdiocese takes all allegations seriously. Archbishop Myers has stated publicly that this Archdiocese will not return a priest to ministry if there is a credible allegation against him. He has been true to his word.

The Archdiocese of Newark has not finished some of its investigations, and has not yet taken specific action against some priests. There are a number of reasons for this. The primary one, however, is that we are still developing information on cases. Because people’s reputations and lives are at stake, the Archdiocese will not act prematurely. The Archdiocese does not appear to be alone in this. County prosecutors are also taking time to review cases. It is true that some of the cases now with the prosecutors will not result in action because of statutes of limitations. However, the Archdiocese will pursue all available canonical actions against priests with credible allegations. This process also will take time. It is important to remember that, in most cases, we are working to discover the facts about events that may have taken place 20, 30 or more years ago. The information was not made available to us until now.

It appears, however, that SNAP’s only wish is for a rush to judgment, rather than a reasoned and thorough investigation and revelation of the facts.

The Archdiocese is committed to justice. We will do it according to both civil and canon law.

One last item regarding the June 5 press conference and SNAP’s statements concerning Fr. Robert Hoatson. Fr. Hoatson’s early end to his term as director of Our Lady of Good Counsel Schools was based on problems at the school and his own admitted desire to leave. We have since been contacted by parents of children at Good Counsel Schools who have expressed thanks to the Archdiocese for the actions we took last month. We will have no more to say about Fr. Hoatson, except that we expect him to be available to take on a new assignment somewhere in the Archdiocese in the near future.

We continue to extend our invitation to anyone who feels he or she has been harmed to come forward directly to us. The person to contact is Ms. Sheri A. Rickert, Chancellor for the Archdiocese of Newark, at (973) 497-4009.

2003 News Releases