February 7, 2002 9:15 a.m.
Rod Dreher
Are sex scandals involving Catholic priests the fault of moral and theological liberalism? Some conservative Catholics think so. But an ugly case unfolding now in Pennsylvania involving allegations of homosexual misconduct, alcohol abuse, and financial fraud on the part of a traditionalist religious community suggests otherwise.
In late January, Scranton Bishop James Timlin confirmed to the local media that he had reassigned — but not suspended — the two leaders of the traditionalist Society of St. John, pending the outcome of an investigation into the purported sexual molestation of a young man, who was a minor at the time of the alleged crime. The priests are the Rev. Carlos Urritigoity, the society's superior-general, and his chancellor, the Rev. Eric Ensey. Auxiliary Bishop John Dougherty said the move came in the wake of a January 12 "confidential letter" the diocese received from an adult male alleging molestation against one of the two priests, and improper contact with the other.
Jeffrey Bond, who was tapped by the society to run its planned college, but who has turned on the order after discovering what he considers evidence of financial and sexual impropriety, believes Bishop Timlin's actions are too little, too late. And the grassroots-activist group Roman Catholic Faithful has called for the resignation of Timlin, whom it has accused of foot-dragging to protect the order.
"Last summer, I knew we had to separate the college from the Society," Bond says. "First, because they were raising money in our name but not giving it to us, and second, because I found out that Fr. Urritigoity had a problem with sleeping with young men."
He's not using the verb as a euphemism for sex between the priest and others, which he says he cannot prove. Urritigoity, though, has a strange habit of sharing his bed with seminarians and other young men, say Bond and others formerly associated with the Society. Bond and his lawyer provided NRO with two affidavits and a letter from a Franciscan friar, all of whom say they witnessed activities involving alcohol and improper physical intimacy among Society priests and young men — including teenage boys — in their company.
The Society of St. John began as a breakaway group from the Society of St. Pius X, a traditionalist Catholic order founded by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. When Bishop Timlin canonically established the Society in his diocese in 1997, he gave its members temporary housing in St. Gregory's Academy, an all-male Catholic boarding school sponsored by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter. Jude Huntz, who was head dorm manager, stated in a sworn affidavit that on several occasions, he saw Society members getting male students drunk. Brother Alexis Bugnolo, a Franciscan friar who overnighted in the Society's quarters in 1999, says in a letter that he is prepared to testify in court that he witnessed during that stay several instances of homosexual activity among students, including one boy who later became a postulant of the Society.
Later that year, Society members relocated into two houses on a vast rural Pennsylvania estate it had purchased for $2.2 million. That did not end the Society's relationship with St. Gregory's boys, though. One former Society postulant, who was with the order for six months in the year 2000, told NRO that 18- and 19-year-old St. Gregory's graduates would visit Urritigoity on weekends, many of them spending the night in the priest's room, which contained only one, single-sized bed.
A sworn affidavit provided by the 32-year-old California man, who asked NRO to withhold his name, details several instances in which he claims to have seen young men in compromising positions with Urritigoity, and the Society's priests plying young men with booze. On one occasion, the ex-postulant alleges he saw a man who had been extremely drunk the night before, leaving the 37-year-old Urritigoity's bedroom in the morning.
"None of them ever told me they had had intercourse with him, but it was all very weird," the ex-postulant said. He added that when he shared his concerns about "musical bedrooms" with others in the Society, "I was made to feel that I was the one with the problem."
Meanwhile, the Society was presenting to the public an appealing image of a vibrant new religious community based on the Latin Mass, classical scholarship, and Catholic cultural tradition. Its well-designed website promotes the Society's vision for an ideal Catholic priestly and lay community — including the building of a model traditionalist Catholic village — which brought donations pouring in from sympathetic Catholics.
Behind the scenes, though, the Society was "spending money like a drunken sailor," alleges a prominent Catholic businessman who served on its board of advisers, and who helped the Society raise money.
"I was concerned because they had a certain arrogance and a certain attitude about things," says John Blewett, who is now managing editor of Latin Mass magazine. "They were careless financially, and very haughty about what they could do. That's not the kind of humility and attitude one brings to that kind of endeavor."
Matthew Sawyer, an Illinois businessman and former board member, says he was rebuffed by the Society's leadership when he questioned them about what he describes as their "wild spending sprees," and the possible illegal handling of their finances.
"Then I petitioned Bishop Timlin, and he couldn't have cared less," says Sawyer. "He said that's the way they are."
In public letters to the bishop, who is a favorite of traditionalist Catholics, Bond accuses him of looking the other way as he and others presented evidence of the Society's financial mismanagement and sexual shenanigans. Among his allegations: that Timlin knew, or should have known had he done a background check as required by diocesan guidelines, that Urritigoity was a potential danger to boys at St. Gregory's.
Bond provided NRO with a copy of an undated letter, written in Spanish, purportedly sent by a Society of St. Pius X seminary in Argentina to SSPX counterparts in the United States, warning them that Urritigoity had been caught numerous times engaging in homosexual activity while a seminarian there. Bond came across the document while investigating Urritigoity, and says he e-mailed the information to Timlin on December 8.
"Why did I have to be the one to find this out about Fr. Urritigoity's past?" says Bond. "If Bishop Timlin had bothered to do a background check before he let this guy work with kids, as the diocesan policy says he's supposed to, he would have found it out on his own."
A spokesman at SSPX's American headquarters declined to comment on the letter, calling it "a private communication."
For its part, the Diocese of Scranton issued an angry January 24 statement categorically denying Bond's charges (the official statement, which is not available on the diocesan website, can be found here, along with a short statement by the Society, and responses by Bond. The diocese's statement referred requests for further information to its attorney, but does not identify the lawyer. Calls to the diocese's spokeswoman were unanswered. Nor did the Society answer NRO's request for comment.
The whole mess may soon end up in court. The young man who sent the January 12 letter to Timlin claiming he had been molested by a Society priest is said to be preparing a lawsuit against the Society and the diocese. Bond is also contemplating a lawsuit that would seek to hold the Society and Timlin responsible for the collapse — temporary, he hopes — of the College of St. Justin Martyr.
Meanwhile, both the implosion of the Society and the bishop's actions have left some Catholics feeling angry, betrayed, and alienated from the traditionalist movement.
Sawyer describes the Society's priests as, "Wolves in sheep's clothing. I gave them my all, and they just kicked me in the teeth. They're lawless renegades, and the way they handled their money and property, they've got to be in violation of their 501(c)3 status."
The ex-postulant from California, whose family had donated a large sum of money to the Society, is, like Sawyer, estranged from traditionalist Catholicism.
Blewett, whose Latin Mass magazine is the editorial flagship of the movement, agrees that scandals like this rob good people of their hope, and make them cynical. And the fallout will, unfortunately, affect even good traditionalist orders.
"When these brushes tar, they tar widely," he says.
Bond says until this happened, he believed sexual disorder in the clergy was the fruit of modern liturgy and liberal bishops. Now, he says, he has learned the hard way that personal orthodoxy does not guarantee that a bishop will do the right thing when it comes to governing his diocese, particularly in the matter of protecting kids from potential sexual predators. And he is convinced even a bishop as well-liked by Church conservatives as Timlin must be held publicly accountable.
"I've gotten my share of people telling me to be quiet about this, and I keep telling them that you can't say we have to avoid scandal, and let people get harmed," says Bond. "Your duty is to stop the evil and let God take care of the rest. The scandal is caused by the actions of these people, and what you're doing is trying to stop it."
There was no breakaway group.
Urritigoity was booted out of the SSPX and the Society warned Timlin of Urritigoity. It's disgusting to see how Dreher is trying to associate the scandal with SSPX.
Traditional Catholics have the greatest reason to demand that this cancer be expunged from the Scranton Diocese. We have no obligation whatsoever to be protective of anyone in the hierarchy who tolerates this abusive behavior of the ordained toward children. If the miscreant is traditional, we traditionalists should be all the more zealous in rooting out the traditionalist who is a miscreant.