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Priest (Fr. Benedict Groeschel) plays down abuse crisis; helps clergy keep jobs
Dallas Morning News | 3/2/2003 | Brooks Egerton

Posted on 03/02/2003 8:54:18 AM PST by sinkspur

Prominent friar's counseling criticized by NJ diocese, victims

In the world according to Father Benedict Groeschel, the Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandal is largely the stuff of fiction. Reporters "doing the work of Satan" are driven to lie, the New York priest says, because they hate the church's moral teachings.

These are not the opinions of a marginal figure. Indeed, Father Groeschel is one of the most prominent priests in America, reaching millions with his books, tapes, parish lectures and regular appearances on the Eternal Word Television Network.

His stature is high among many church leaders, too – he has heard the confessions of a cardinal, consulted with the Vatican on a case for sainthood, been a friend to Mother Teresa.

The preface to his media-blaming 2002 book From Scandal to Hope was written by Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who praised Father Groeschel for putting the abuse scandal in context.

For all his commentary on the crisis, Father Groeschel has revealed few details about his role as a player in it: He has been a key figure for 30 years in the loose-knit nationwide network of therapists who have helped troubled priests keep working.

The Franciscan friar's base is a mansion on Long Island Sound, where he runs the Archdiocese of New York's spiritual development office and Trinity Retreat Center for clergy. There, according to his own written account, he has counseled hundreds of his brethren and "happily, 85 priests have returned to the active ministry."

Father Groeschel, who declined interview requests, has not said publicly how many of his clients were accused of abuse. Archdiocesan spokesman Joseph Zwilling would not comment on Father Groeschel.

Dallas Bishop Charles Grahmann has allowed one of his priests, removed from parish work after the diocese concluded he had abused a girl, to help manage the retreat center in recent years. That priest, the Rev. Richard T. Brown, moved to a hermitage a few months ago and "is not contactable," said Father Groeschel's secretary, June Pulitano. Neither she nor Bishop Grahmann's spokesman, Bronson Havard, would identify the hermitage.

Mr. Zwilling said Father Brown "never did any pastoral work" in the archdiocese and did not have its permission to serve as a priest there.

Leaders of the neighboring Diocese of Paterson, N.J., one of several that sent business to Father Groeschel, blamed three "unfortunate" reassignments on his advice. Two of those priests were subsequently accused of misconduct in their new jobs.

"We relied on his recommendations," said Marianna Thompson, spokeswoman for Paterson Bishop Frank Rodimer. Father Groeschel used words such as "transformation," she said, and helped arrange transfers between dioceses.

Ms. Thompson said Father Groeschel had much to recommend him – he had taught pastoral psychology at Catholic institutions and had a doctorate in psychology from Columbia University's Teachers College. He had close ties to the late New York Cardinal John O'Connor, who endorsed the friar's secession from a Franciscan order in the 1980s and formation of a new group that has won renown for service to the poor. The cardinal earlier had Father Groeschel prepare the sainthood case for the previous leader of New York Catholics, Cardinal Terence Cooke, for whom the priest had served as confessor.

In From Scandal to Hope, completed shortly before the nation's bishops met in Dallas last summer, Father Groeschel acknowledged that some priests had abused boys. He described the problem as "active homosexuality with minors," stressing that most victims were teenagers and never mentioning girls.

"Many of the cases now in the papers are about clergy who, perhaps under the influence of alcohol two or three decades ago, engaged in improper actions, but not sexual acts," he wrote. "They went into treatment and have behaved well over the years."

Father Groeschel also said that church leaders sometimes had relied, to their detriment, on the advice of behavioral experts.

"I've been involved in psychology for four decades, and we in the profession were naïve enough to think that these offenders could almost always be cured," he wrote. Therapists "often were correct in their assessments," but "were sometimes tragically wrong about a particular case."

Father Groeschel said nothing in his book about his own success rate in treating priests.

He saved his harshest words for the news media's coverage of the abuse issue, which he called a "blitz of lies." Like Adolf Hitler, he wrote, news organizations are "spreading lies in order to destroy" the Catholic Church.

"When a scandal occurs," the priest wrote, "about two percent of what is said in the media is true." Last month, he made similar statements to a standing-room-only crowd at a suburban Boston church.

Such statements have infuriated victims. "It just burns me to no end," said Buddy Cotton, who has accused the Rev. James Hanley of abusing him in the Paterson Diocese and recently called Bishop Rodimer to complain about Father Groeschel.

The bishop, Mr. Cotton said, agreed that Father Groeschel "had failed a lot of victims."

Ms. Thompson, the bishop's spokeswoman, said Father Groeschel's critique of the media was misguided. "Bishop Rodimer has told the media, 'Thank you for opening the window on this,' " she said. "The media have been fair. We created this story, not the press."

The victims

Father Groeschel has said he is sensitive to victims. "As a psychologist for priests, I have occasionally spoken to the victims of priests and to their families," he wrote in From Scandal to Hope. "I can only say that I am deeply, deeply grieved. I often had to accept their anger, not directed personally at me, but at Church authorities. ...

"I am willing," he added, "to suffer with the victims."

Mark Serrano, who also has said that Father Hanley abused him as a boy, questioned Father Groeschel's sincerity. His skepticism, he said, is based on an experience he had after his family's complaints led Bishop Rodimer to suspend Father Hanley.

In 1986, the year after the abuse complaints, Mr. Serrano agreed to talk to Father Groeschel, who was counseling Father Hanley. Mr. Serrano, who was then a college student, said he thought the counselor "wanted more information" for therapeutic purposes. Instead, Mr. Serrano said, Father Groeschel lashed out at him.

"He said, 'Why don't you stop harassing this poor priest? He's a sick man. You are wrong for what you're doing to him.' "

Monsignor Kenneth Lasch, a Paterson diocesan priest, said he had urged Mr. Serrano to talk with Father Groeschel because the friar had expressed pastoral concern for Mr. Serrano – "something like, 'Mark seems to be a troubled person.' "

Hearing Mr. Serrano's account of what ensued "left me very, very uncomfortable," Monsignor Lasch said, "and made me wonder what was going on" at Father Groeschel's retreat center.

Father Groeschel's 2002 book warned that Catholics would still face a crisis after "the media monster ... slither[s] away to attack other victims." He prescribed a return to conservative moral teachings, saying that nothing would restore confidence in church leadership "better than a firm stance against pornography, extramarital sex, abortion, euthanasia and the general moral decline of the United States. ... Tough topics like contraception and autoeroticism need to be consistently and publicly addressed."

He said that the news media fail to mention that most priests aren't pedophiles, that cover-ups occur in other denominations, and that abusers "are among the most penitent people I've ever met in my whole life."

He cited the example of the late Atlanta Archbishop Eugene Marino, who resigned in 1990 after an affair with a young woman in lay ministry and went to Father Groeschel's retreat center, in the New York City suburb of Larchmont. He "lived a life of extreme humiliation, humility and penitence," Father Groeschel wrote.

In the mid-1990s, Archbishop Marino became spiritual director of the outpatient Clergy Consultation and Treatment Service at St. Vincent's Hospital, near Trinity Retreat. It was formed at the request of the late Cardinal O'Connor and works closely with the retreat center.

One priest who was counseled by Archbishop Marino and Father Groeschel was the Rev. Morgan Kuhl.

He was sent to them in 1999, after he solicited sex online from undercover officers posing as adolescent boys and was arrested. The subsequent FBI investigation showed that he had met teens this way and abused them.

Clergy treatment

The prosecution of Father Kuhl, who has been removed from ministry, opened a rare window into the Catholic clergy treatment system.

A psychologist who evaluated Father Kuhl for federal prosecutors recommended that he "be enrolled in a program specific to sex offenders," not just in the general psychotherapy and spiritual counseling he was getting. Dr. Barry Katz wrote that the priest "expressed regret over the effects that his actions have had upon himself, but no remorse for the effect that his actions have had upon the minors with whom he was involved."

After pleading guilty, Father Kuhl apologized to a judge for "the hurt and the embarrassment that I have caused so many other people." He also said he had devoted his life to helping others, and had learned in church-sponsored therapy "that there was one person I never did seem to try to help, and that was myself."

U.S. District Judge Anne Thompson initially sentenced Father Kuhl to a short prison term followed by house arrest. But she later reduced the penalty, over the objections of prosecutor Donna Krappa, to five years of probation and ordered the priest to "adhere to the program requirements at Trinity Retreat."

In advocating probation, Father Groeschel represented himself to the court as a counseling psychologist, Ms. Krappa said in an interview. New York state officials said he has never had the license generally required for use of that title. Using the title without a license is a misdemeanor, state officials said.

"I think that the judge would have been interested in this fact," Ms. Krappa said, "when she considered the quality of treatment Father Kuhl was receiving through the archdiocese."


TOPICS: General Discusssion
KEYWORDS: catholicchurch; catholiclist
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To: sinkspur
Do you have any comments as to why Groeschel chose not to comment to the writer of this article?

Are you truly THAT ignorant of Christianity? The ultimate act of humility is NOT to answer those who condemn you. For more information on this, see Jesus before the Sanhedrin.
81 posted on 03/02/2003 8:49:51 PM PST by Antoninus (In hoc signo, vinces †)
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To: sinkspur; Siobhan
Do saints berate victims of sexual abuse?

Funny, you had a much more critical eye when dealing with Michael Rose's reporting in Goodbye, Good Men than you do with this particular reporter, who at least had the "decency" to hide his credentials as the head of a Dallas homo-promo organization.

You are a piece of work.
82 posted on 03/02/2003 9:02:59 PM PST by Antoninus (In hoc signo, vinces †)
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To: sinkspur
You're right. I would expect an open homosexual to advocate homosexuality.

Which makes it odd for him to write a hit-piece on Fr. Groeschel, if, as you are insinuating, Fr. Groeschel was complicit in covering up/moving around homosexual priests.

This article stinks to high heaven and you are oh so quick to embrace it. Enjoy the stench.
83 posted on 03/02/2003 9:07:15 PM PST by Antoninus (In hoc signo, vinces †)
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To: sinkspur
Nobody has an obligation to respond to any charges made in the media as long as they are willing to live with the consequences of that silence.

Like Christ did, right?
84 posted on 03/02/2003 9:10:24 PM PST by Antoninus (In hoc signo, vinces †)
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To: BlackElk
Your enlightened opinion is sought on this issue...
85 posted on 03/02/2003 9:16:44 PM PST by Antoninus (In hoc signo, vinces †)
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To: sinkspur
Groeschel was complicit.

Even without this article (whomever it's by) and information about three predator priests he helped get reassigned -- it's been clear that from day one, for whatever his reasons, Fr. Groeschel had been part of the cover-up. He has consistently made excuses for the guilty bishops, to help them keep their cushy jobs.

Apparently his own, as well.

Standard Opus Dei lines: the media created the scandal, it's only a handful of priests, these were all long ago before JPII's reforms were in place.

86 posted on 03/02/2003 10:02:37 PM PST by Dajjal
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To: sinkspur
D'ya know, ya'd almost get the impression that Free Republic was not a forum for posting controversial articles, upon which many people could voice their personal opinions!

A coupla' months ago, I posted this one article, and before 300 comments were through, it was suggested by several people that I should be brought up on charges for formal excommunication or interdiction under Canons 1369 and 1373 just for posting the journalist's essay!

I'd give ya a link ta it, but in the interest of free speech, evenchally the moderator deleted the offending essay and all the comments.

LOL!!!

87 posted on 03/02/2003 10:58:02 PM PST by Dajjal
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To: SuziQ
They could very well have snowed the therapists into thinking they were just fine and could be trusted again.

If you listen to Fr. Groeschel enough you'll notice that he's enamored of his degree in psychology. He mentions it quite a bit. For this he can be faulted, as he can be faulted for recommending the reassignment of molesting priests, if that's what he in fact did.

However, for working in the slums of NY for almost his entire adult life, he can't be faulted. A passage about splinters and planks comes to mind.

88 posted on 03/03/2003 5:50:09 AM PST by Aquinasfan
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To: sinkspur
Ad hominems are supposed to be beneath Freepers, but apparently that fallacious method of argumentation is perfectly acceptable when it's used in favor of somebody we like.

Facts are facts. But a person's behavior is relevant when assessing that person's ability to make sound judgements. You will know them by what they do.

89 posted on 03/03/2003 6:04:09 AM PST by Aquinasfan
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Comment #90 Removed by Moderator

To: drstevej
Yep..Thanks
91 posted on 03/03/2003 7:57:01 AM PST by RnMomof7
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To: sinkspur; Antoninus
Fr. Groeschel owes ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to the author of the article. Fr. Groeschel will be remembered favorably long after the newsie has gone to the grave and well-deserved obscurity. Fr. Groeschel, as a psychologist alone, would owe no answers to the press or media. More importantly, he is a priest of the Roman Catholic Church and, insofar, as he has given pastoral counseling or heard the confessions of those who had misbehaved, he is not even entitled to discuss the matter with others and is protected by civil law from any obligation to do so. He should be prepared to suffer martyrdom before revealing anything of a confidential nature learned in counseling or the hearing of confessions.

No one in his or her right mind blames the press or the media for the controversy. The blame lies with AmChurch liberal spaghetti-spines like Bishop Grahman of Dallas notoriety, Lavender Weakland formerly of Milwaukee, Roger Cardinal McPhony, Bernard Cardinal Lawless, Fr. NAMBLA Slattery, Fr. Geoghan and so many others of the Kumbaya persuasion who have engaged in the full-time headlong crusade to destroy the American Church for the last 40 years and more. Occasionally and quite rarely, someone who is not a militant or malleable Kumbaya is also responsible (Bishop Thomas Daily comes to mind). Purge each and every one. Remove them from their ecclesiastical offices. Defrock them as priests. Remove their left-wing toadies from their positions as termites in the AmChurch bureaucracy.

Fr. Hardon was one of the very last of the Catholic Jesuits and deserves not to be libeled posthumously. Fr. Groeschel is still with us and doing a generally excellent job in spite of being a psychologist. Whoever the idiot New York State official may be who claimed that Fr. Groeschel serving as a "counselling psychologist" without a New York State license to do so is as an ancient British wag once said "a ass, a idiot." The Roman Catholic clergy needs no license to counsel anyone and the First Amendment guarantees that New York State cannot do a thing about it, not that New York is about to try.

Any priest working under the direct supervision of either Fr. Groeschel or the late Fr. Hardon is not likely to offend again while under such supervision. The pederasts and other perverts formerly in the priesthood have conducted themselves despicably but they still need to eat and to work to earn their keep.

How are Fort Worth Catholics coming along on removing the Fort Worth pervert priest imported from Rhode Island by your bishop to run the diocesan Boy Scout program?

Antoninus: This will also serve as an answer to your ping. While I think that everyone (save priests as noted above) should cooperate fully with the exposure before press and media and removal from the priesthood of those demonstrated to be practicing perverts and, under the old John XXIII document of 1961, the removal from the priesthood of those with such disordered inclinations even if non-practicing, Fr, Groeschel has earned the right to the benefit of the doubt as to his handling of such situations.

92 posted on 03/03/2003 8:19:27 AM PST by BlackElk (Viva Cristo Rey!)
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To: sinkspur
Fr. Groeschel is a Roman Catholic priest. He needs no license from the State of New York or any other gummint busybody. The First Amendment liveth. If the First Amendment should ever die, we should remember that the Roman Catholic Church is possessed of real and permanent authority unlike transitory governments which come and go throughout our Church;s history while we are guaranteed to linger on until the very end.
93 posted on 03/03/2003 8:22:19 AM PST by BlackElk (Viva Cristo Rey!)
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To: B Knotts
"I suppose you think it is a coincidence that of all the psychologists and advisors who have screwed up on this stuff, this author chooses to single out Fr. Groeschel?"

Not at all - I hold no candle for bum bandits, and I am certain that this one has singled out Groeschel to further his own agenda. This does not alter the fact that many good conservative priests have wittingly or unwittingly "colluded" in the slide of the American Church into depravity.

Many have known full well what their colleagues have been doing, and what their congregations have been doing with contraceptives, but have kept silent rather than speak out and become unpopular.

"The primary remaining issue is convincing the bishops to embrace the Church's teachings on sexual morality."

I think you are quite right here, but that will probably not happen until the laity repent and embrace the Church's teachings on sexual morality.

The bishops have been getting the message from the laity for the last 30 years that sexual morality doesn't matter and that they are not prepared to embrace the Church's teaching. Consequently the laity have produced and been given the bishops and priests that they deserve.
94 posted on 03/03/2003 8:22:36 AM PST by Tantumergo
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To: Tantumergo
I don't really disagree with anything you've said there, but, as incredible as this seems to us, the bishops are actually supposed to instruct the laity. It's not really supposed to be the other way around, although I acknowledge that it currently is.
95 posted on 03/03/2003 8:31:50 AM PST by B Knotts
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To: sinkspur; Siobhan; Antoninus
And we know that Buddy Cotton was a "victim" of sexual abuse BECAUSE............?????????? His accusation is tantamount to conviction, right? Well, maybe he was victimized and maybe he wasn't. This article leaves us remarkbaly uninformed as to the actual details the victimization. We just have to take the newsie's word for it, right?

Assuming that Mr. Cotton was, in fact, victimized that does not exempt him from conducting himself morally thereafter nor prohibit Fr. Groeschel from calling him to account for his shortcomings. That's Fr. Groeschel's job.

96 posted on 03/03/2003 8:32:24 AM PST by BlackElk (Viva Cristo Rey!)
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To: sinkspur
Name three priest/perverts as to whom Cardinal Lawless relied upon reports by Fr. Groeschel. Alternatively, name three men "like Fr. Groeschel" upon whom Lawless relied and specify the similarity in each instance. Alternatively, retract.
97 posted on 03/03/2003 8:35:36 AM PST by BlackElk (Viva Cristo Rey!)
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To: Tantumergo
The bishops have been getting the message from the laity for the last 30 years that sexual morality doesn't matter and that they are not prepared to embrace the Church's teaching. Consequently the laity have produced and been given the bishops and priests that they deserve.

The laity consider themselves "sophisticated" in this regard. Big mistake.
98 posted on 03/03/2003 8:37:34 AM PST by Desdemona (Voice, the only musical instrument made by God.)
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To: Siobhan; sinkspur
Jealousy is your answer, Siobhan. Sinkspur is very jealous because there are virtually no AmChurch Kumbayas in any danger of sainthood. His vague complaint is in the nature of "We're all made of the same clay, you know!" That argument is almost NEVER true and certainly not in this case and if that's the best argument a critic can make, it's not much of an argument.
99 posted on 03/03/2003 8:39:52 AM PST by BlackElk (Viva Cristo Rey!)
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To: Siobhan
"The real point is that a homosexual journalist has chosen to target Father Benedict Groeschel, C.F.R. out of all of the psychologists, counselors, and psychiatrists involved"

I think you are correct and we should probably not expect anything else from this sort of vile creature - the pox be upon him!

However, it may just be the case that what he is reporting has some basis in fact, and that Fr Groeschel will have to give some accounting for past mistakes (as will we all either in this life or the next).

Nevertheless, whatever the truth of these reports or not, it will do nothing to diminish the veracity of Fr Groeschel's analysis of the present problem, viz the conversion of the whole Church to God's Law. On this he is infallibly correct!
100 posted on 03/03/2003 8:40:19 AM PST by Tantumergo
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