Category: Clergy Abuse

A Real Character

~ danbonbooks ~ Leave a comment

As a young boy, I lived less than one block from our local public grade school.  Since I could walk there each day, this meant that the only time I boarded a school bus was for the once-weekly ride to St. Ann’s Catholic Church for “release time” education classes, where I would learn about the tenets of my faith.

Like many young men, I served as an altar boy, participated in CYO sports and summer camps, rounding things off with one year at a Catholic high school.  Suffice it to say that the lessons learned through these experiences provided clarity about what was right and what was wrong, and a template within which I could, ideally, make right choices.

Being much older now, it is looking more and more like that time spent memorizing the Ten Commandments and absorbing the Church’s teachings on appropriate behavior was a waste of my time.

Yes, things have changed over the years in the Catholic church … I often think of George Carlin’s response upon learning that we could eat meat on Friday: “What about all the people doing time on the meat rap?”  Carlin was a comedian, of course, but there was nothing humorous in Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s recent observation that Donald Trump “takes his Christian faith seriously.”

What the hell?  I mean … really … what the actual hell?

Was Dolan talking about THAT Donald Trump?  The man whose personal choices and actions over the years have left many of us slack-jawed?  Is this the individual who Dolan would hold up before the faithful as a paragon of virtue?

One way to measure a person’s character is to consider whether we can comfortably tell a child … “be like him” … or “be like her.”  In the case of Donald Trump, how many of us can say that?  Given what we know of his character, I suspect that few of us … with the obvious exception of Cardinal Timothy Dolan … would be able to point to Trump as a moral touchstone for our children.

This screed, by the way, has nothing to do Trump’s politics or policies … those have been, and will continue to be, discussed at length and with great vigor elsewhere.  Instead, this is about a Catholic leader lauding someone who he sees as a moral icon worthy of emulation, while many of us are left to wonder at how far the Church has strayed from what we understood to be its teachings on rightness and morality.

I realize that both my knowledge and practice of religion are rudimentary and even elementary.  I do not, after all, possess the wisdom or intellectual horsepower to make a nuanced theological argument about those things I have believed to be bedrock principles of the Catholic Church.  Apparently, I have a lot to learn.

At some level, Cardinal Dolan’s identifying Donald Trump as someone who “takes his Christian faith seriously,” is but one more example of Catholic leaders being, at the very least, poor judges of character.  As evidence, one need look no further than the many pedophile clergy who were recruited, trained, ordained and then assigned to priestly duties where they sexually abused children before being transferred elsewhere to continue their evil deeds.

There is a word for those among us who profess to have particular moral beliefs but behave in ways that are not sincere.  That word is hypocrite.

Shame on you, Cardinal Dolan.

Predator Priests in Paradise

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For many, thoughts of the South Pacific bring to mind lavish vacations on beautiful islands with miles of white sand beaches.  Given their exotic locale, islands in this region are very popular with diving enthusiasts, and have even become the venue of choice for “destination weddings.”

Sadly, they have also gained a much more sordid reputation for another reason … they are excellent places for the Catholic Church to hide predator priests.

According to a report in the NY Times (9/6/24), island nations in the South Pacific have become a repository for Catholic priests and missionaries accused of having sexually abused children.   In fact, more than 30 of these fallen clergy have taken up residence in Fiji, Kiribati, New Guinea and Samoa and, in at least 13 of those cases, their superiors knew that these men had been accused or convicted of abuse before being transferred to the Pacific.

In one particularly egregious case Julian Fox, the Australian head of the Salesians of Don Bosco in Melbourne, was moved to Fiji when it became known that a former student had accused him of rape.  Being in that island nation kept him out of the reach of Australian authorities, where he stayed for several years before taking an assignment at the Vatican.  Yes … that’s right … he took an assignment at the Vatican.

A decade after the initial accusations, Fox returned to Australia where he was convicted of abusing five children, some of whom he beat and violated with a pool cue according to media reports.

Similarly, Rodger Moloney, leader of a Catholic school dedicated to caring for disabled children in New Zealand, was reported in 1971, to have sexually abused a child.  Shortly thereafter, he took a position at the Vatican … yes … once again … a job at the Vatican.  He next worked in New Guinea in the 1980s and 1990s, before being extradited back to New Zealand where he was convicted of abusing five boys and sentenced to nearly three years in prison.

As an aside, when church leaders look for a place to hide a pedophile priest, an island in the South Pacific is an attractive option … good weather … scenic … large Catholic population … legal protection against extradition.  That said, consider how disappointed a disgraced prelate must be to find himself being “reprogrammed” at a remote facility in the desert of New Mexico, when he could have been sitting on a beach in the tropics.  

Michelle Mulvihill, a former nun and adviser to the Australian Catholic Church has been a staunch critic of those who have used the Pacific Islands as a “dumping ground” for degenerate priests.  In publicizing the transfer of pedophiles and pederasts into this remote locale, Mulvihill argues that Catholic leaders have used this region as a place to discard those people who they do not want to confront.

And … there it is.

Individual acts of depravity by Catholic clergy are reprehensible and unforgivable, and the perpetrators of such evil are beyond redemption.  There is a special place in Hell, though, for those church leaders … the Catholic elite … who have knowledge of the depraved actions of those in their charge, and who fail to hold those miscreants forcefully and publicly accountable.

Given the proclivity for church leaders to transfer dissolute clergy to these remote South Pacific Islands, one could understand if a Fijian Catholic were to declare:  madua ena lotu Kotolika.*

(*Translation: Shame on the Catholic church)

To Protect and Serve? Really?

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Formed in 1917, the New York State Police has much in common with the Catholic Church.  Both organizations are built around the notion of doing good, helping and protecting others, and providing a beacon of hope for those in need.  Another notable similarity between the Catholic Church and the NYSP … until 1973, when women first joined the State Police, the ranks of Priests and Troopers were composed only of men.

There is at least one other way in which the Catholic Church and the NYSP are alike … both entities place the very highest priority on safeguarding their image.  And if a recently surfaced case from upstate New York is any indication, some State Police members have proven themselves equal to Catholic prelates in their willingness to ignore and denigrate victims of ghastly behaviors perpetrated by their employees.

In the matter at hand, the Albany Times Union reported in April, 2024, the breathtaking details of Roger Coon, a now-deceased State Trooper who, in 1982, was allowed to retire from the force despite credible allegations of child sex abuse having been made against him.  It was later determined that this predator had, for years, been abusing young boys while on duty and in uniform, yet he was permitted to leave the State Police without criminal charges or disciplinary action, and with his full pension intact.

The Criminal Justice system, though, had not heard the last of this pervert, for a scant two years after leaving the State Police, Coon was sentenced to three years probation after pleading guilty to the molestation of three boys between the ages of 10 and 12.  Notably, the allegations in his case detailed more than a dozen incidents that took place immediately before and after he left the State Police.  Finally, in 2001, he was sentenced to six months in jail and five years’ probation for the sexual abuse of a 9-year-old boy.  This irredeemable deviant died in 2003.

It is important to note that when information about Coon’s criminal behavior first became known, the State Police took a page from the playbook of those Catholic leaders who worked tirelessly over the years to protect the image of the Church, while downplaying the horrific scandal of child abuse.  A written recommendation from a NYSP Investigator is especially telling:

Since the Saratoga County district attorney has elected to forego any criminal prosecution and Coon is no longer subject to division disciplinary proceedings, further investigation into this matter would only provide for possible widespread public knowledge and embarrassment to the division.

In other words, rather than conduct a wider search for other children who might have been harmed by this pedophile, the primary goal suggested by the author of this report was that, first and foremost, the image of the organization be protected.  Put differently, he proposed that the State Police should “keep the lid on things” and, when it came to the possibility of any additional victims, well, everyone would just have to keep their fingers crossed that none would come forward.

Given the concerns over image expressed by the Investigator above, one is left to wonder whether things might have turned out differently had the allegations against Roger Coon been fully investigated when they first surfaced.  How would the public and the media have reacted?   Would knowledge of the perverted actions of that one Trooper have irreparably tarnished the reputation of the State Police?  Would making public the results of a meticulous investigation have helped or harmed the stature of that agency?  In short, would the image of the NYSP have been enhanced or diminished by a demonstrated willingness to deal quickly and seriously with malfeasance within its ranks?

What is abundantly clear is that after forty-two years, this case and the manner in which it was handled have created a public relations nightmare for the New York State Police, while resurrecting the pain endured by victims of child sexual abuse.  Two days after their initial report on this case, the Albany Times Union published an editorial on this matter with a damning and accurate title:

A Stain on the Badge

Do No Harm?

~ danbonbooks ~ 1 Comment

Although we moved across the country more than 35 years ago, we continue to maintain online subscriptions with two newspapers in communities where we used to reside. These are places that hold great meaning for our family, so staying in touch with events and people in those parts is always enjoyable.

Except when it isn’t.

A recent article, for example, reported that James Garisto, a Catholic priest from Poughkeepsie, NY, was arrested in Philadelphia on charges related to the sexual abuse of two young boys.  And to the surprise of absolutely nobody, reports indicated that employees at his parish were aware of his outrageous behavior, but compensated him nonetheless for expenses related to travel with his victims.

Like so many other similar cases, Garisto groomed and then assaulted his victims by, first, ingratiating himself to their families … who, after all, would have concerns about the motives of a beloved priest?  According to Mike McDonnell, communications director of SNAP, Garisto: “… was protected by the bishop simply because he was a charismatic neighborhood priest,” going on to point out that: “… abusers gain trust by families and are held on a pedestal.”  If a child were to come forward saying they were abused by a character like Garisto, McDonnell says, that child would have to wonder: “Who is going to believe me … they love this guy.”

Adding to the shame and hurt of this awful series of events, it played out in a city … Poughkeepsie … where the monstrous Gennaro “Father Jerry” Gentile harmed many young men and their families before being outed and then laicized.  When Gentile’s despicable acts at St. Mary’s parish and other places were finally revealed and reported on, his picture appeared on the front page of the New York Daily News under the headline: “Twisted Journey of a Problem Priest.” 

In the Garisto matter, the Archdiocese of New York, as usual, offers all the requisite platitudes while noting: “ … we take seriously every allegation of abuse, however, we cannot comment on the specifics of this case while there are still active criminal and civil cases pending.”  In response, the family of one of his victims suggests that the continuing problem of sexual abuse can be laid directly at the feet of church leaders pointing out:

As angry as I am at the actions of Garisto, I am more angry with the Catholic Church that allows this, moving these men from parish to parish without being advocates for these men to be jailed.  They move them and give them access to vulnerable kids who completely put their trust in a priest or a nun, and then the devastation that is caused as a result of that, that’s what I’m truly angry about.

In 1962, Pete Seeger wrote the classic protest song “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”  More than sixty years later, the prescient chorus of that piece speaks to the continued horrors of clergy sexual abuse, and the unconscionable blindness of Catholic leadership:

When Will They Ever Learn?

Unbelievable … Just … Unbelievable

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You really can’t make this stuff up.

As anyone who follows the news in the DFW area knows, for the past several months, Bishop Michael Olson of the Diocese of Fort Worth, has been involved in a very public conflict with Reverend Teresa Gerlach, Mother Superior of a group of cloistered Carmelite nuns in Arlington, Texas.  And for a production with a fully Catholic cast, the details (as we know them) are, well, pretty salacious.  For example:

… Bishop Olson says Gerlach violated her vow of chastity with a priest from a different Diocese, asserting that she admitted the behavior.

… Mother Superior Gerlach denies the accusations, saying that when interviewed, she was under the effects of anesthesia from surgery.

… Olson ordered that daily Mass and Confessions for the cloistered nuns be suspended.

… Gerlach, who is disabled, accused the Bishop of seizing all her electronic devices which she uses to communicate.

… The Diocese released photos of what is described as a collection of various drugs, including marijuana,  at the Carmelite monastery.

… The Mother Superior maintains that those photographs were staged by Diocesan staff. 

Whew!  If Grace Metalious were still with us and contemplating a sequel to “Peyton Place,” this debacle would seem worthy of a chapter!

But, wait a minute!  Though the name of Mother Superior Gerlach has been widely circulated in the media (and on the Diocese’s web page), the name of the priest allegedly involved in this event remains unknown.  How can that be?

Admittedly, we do not know the intimate details of the allegation but it would seem that, if true, that priest would have violated his promise of celibacy.  And yet he remains anonymous, refusing to confirm or deny that any inappropriate behavior occurred.  

Sadly, the Catholic Church has a long and sordid history of concealing the identities of predator priests and then transferring them, but this current outrage takes things to a different place.  Frankly stated, if the accused in this matter was a priest instead of a nun, it would come as no surprise to learn that the entire sorry event – like so many past cases of sexual misconduct – had been quietly swept under the carpet. 

One thing we know for certain is that when it comes to matters of the flesh, the Catholic Church will get it wrong every time.

Apologia Lost

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Since May, 2015, Pope Francis has spoken, repeatedly, of the words “please, thank you, and sorry” as being essential to repairing and reinforcing bonds.  The phrase “I’m sorry” in particular, he said, is the one which, when lacking, causes small cracks in relationships to become larger to the point that they become deep trenches.

Apparently, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, did not get the memo.

This became clear, recently, when Benedict addressed allegations that he disregarded the reports of four survivors of clergy sexual abuse when he was Archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982.  While denying that he mishandled those accusations, he acknowledged his failure to assist those victims when they sought his help.  In asking for clemency, he added:  “I have had great responsibilities in the Catholic Church.  All the greater is my pain for the abuses and the errors that occurred in those different places during the time of my mandate.”

It is worth pointing out that Benedict’s comments lack the simple phrase … I’m sorry … that his successor, Francis, held as key to healing and mending brokenness.  This being so, one is left to wonder … don’t these guys talk to each other?

Benedict’s lack of personal remorse met with swift reaction. In New York, for example, Robert Hoatson, a priest for 45 years and co-founder of Road to Recovery, demonstrated in front of Archdiocesan offices carrying signs that read: “Pope Benedict: A Moral Failure.  Like All Church Leaders.”  When interviewed, he spoke for many disaffected Catholics in asserting that: “The Church is never going to change.  It’s corrupt to the core, from the Vatican down to New York City.”

To apologize, one needs to honestly hear what happened from the other person’s point of view and how it affected them. But those who believe the world revolves around them like, for example, the Princes of the Church, tend not to be interested in listening to others, particularly if they are being accused of doing something wrong.

Having, over the course of many years, learned this painful lesson, victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic clergy have, long since, abandoned hope of receiving a sincere and meaningful apology from hierarchy of the Church.  

And as the recent intransigence from the upper reaches of the Vatican reveals, this is unlikely to change any time soon.

Speaking Truth to Power

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Kudos to Rev. Jim Gigliotti of St. Andrews Catholic Church in Fort Worth, Texas.

During a sermon in early November, 2020, he made his views on President-elect Joe Biden abundantly clear, referring to him as a “man without value.”  Pointing out that Biden is pro-abortion, Gigliotti reminded us that this stance is in direct opposition to a fundamental teaching of the Church.  He went on to describe Biden as “not a good Catholic.”

Sensing that not all in attendance would agree with his position, Gigliotti underscored that it was his responsibility as pastor to speak clearly and forcefully about a basic Catholic belief such as abortion, and that he was doing so with the understanding that it might upset some people.  To that end, he said, he was prepared to “let the chips fall where they may.”

It takes courage to speak out publicly – to speak truth to power – when a leader fails short and, for that, Father Gigliotti deserves our praise and admiration.  In his widely publicized remarks, he left no doubt that, in his mind, Biden’s beliefs – at least on the topic of abortion – deserve only scorn and repudiation.

That said, it occurs to me that in addition to abortion, there is at least one other issue within the Catholic church that Gigliotti might consider addressing with equal force: the multitude of children who, for years, endured sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic Clergy.  In his sermon he could also articulate and deplore the continuing abject failure of Church leaders to deal effectively with this scandal, and the horrors inflicted upon our most vulnerable.

Clearly, it is time for another of Gigliotti’s “scorched earth” sermons.  And while he hesitated not a moment in directing his recent scornful remarks at leaders in Washington, this time he ought to identify and excoriate failed leaders in another important location … the Vatican.

At the end of his recent sermon in Fort Worth, Gigliotti expressed his airy willingness to “let the chips fall where they may.”  In applauding his willingness to speak out as he did, though, one is left to wonder whether he would be equally cavalier about the manner in which critical remarks about the Child Sex Abuse Scandal might be accepted and responded to by Church hierarchy.   

If past history is any indication, the outcome would not be pretty.  

The Man Next Door

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Our new neighbor seems nice.

He appears to be of retirement age and, though he moved in about a year ago, he keeps pretty much to himself.  Somebody said he came here to the Midwest from one of the New England states, and that he had spent a number of years in the Navy.  He lives alone.

A large American flag flies over his front yard, and he is frequently seen in his garage working with his large collection of tools.  He doesn’t socialize much, but he has a couple of buddies with whom he goes golfing and boating.  It’s nice to see retired guys enjoying life.

He must be a religious sort, for there is a statue of Jesus on his front steps and a sticker on his car reading: “I’m Catholic and I Vote.”  He volunteers at a nearby convent where he drives ailing nuns to medical treatment, and he recently began working with a local community theater group offering programs for adults and young folks.

There are many kids here on our quiet cul-de-sac, and we parents keep a close eye on them.  Our own children are well-mannered … when they are playing outside, they wave at our neighbor and say: “Hello.”  He always waves back at them.

We don’t know much about this fellow, but it doesn’t seem like we should be concerned about him.

Should we?

This “new neighbor” is not an actual person.  Instead, he is a composite of details unearthed by the Associated Press (AP) in a recent search for 1,700 disgraced former Catholic clergy living clandestine lives in unsuspecting communities across the United States.

In their exhaustive October, 2019, report, the AP located fallen clerics employed as school teachers, sex assault counselors, nurses and volunteers working with at-risk children.  Some of these individuals lived near playgrounds and day care centers and, since leaving the church, many have been charged with crimes including sexual assault and possession of child pornography.

And, most distressing, these individuals … each of whom had been removed following credible allegations of sexual abuse … were living in unwary neighborhoods absent supervision by the Catholic Church or notification to any government entity.

When asked about this sad state of affairs, Church leaders maintain that once a priest is dismissed there is no way to keep track of him.  But this is simply not true.

In November, 2018, for example, the Archdiocese of New Orleans released the names of 57 clergy credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors over the years in southeast Louisiana.  In revealing the names of the abusers, the Archbishop said surviving former clergy on the list were notified that their names were about to be made public; he went on to note that efforts were undertaken to notify family members of deceased former religious as well.

It should come as no surprise that other Dioceses and Archdioceses have that same ability.  Consider, for example, the many accused clergy who continue to receive pensions or health insurance from the church … it has been suggested that dioceses should devise a system making those benefits contingent upon defrocked priests self-reporting their current addresses and employment

No longer can we allow Catholic leaders to assert that fallen clergy removed from ministry are not their problem.  The failure to monitor predator priests and report their presence in our communities is inexcusable for, as American author Dean Koontz warns:

Evil is no faceless stranger, living in a distant neighborhood. 

Evil has a wholesome, hometown face, with merry eyes 

and an open smile. Evil walks among us, wearing

a mask which looks like all our faces.