Philadelphia Catholic Clergy Exposed

[Lewis]

As some of you know, I live here in Philadelphia, and this is the big news today. I seen the pictures of the report books they are as thick as phone books. But this is a world wide problem in the RCC and always has been, all through their history.

Philadelphia Clergy Exposed
Grand Jury Releases 418 Page Report
No Additional Charges Against Church Or Priests

(CBS 3) PHILADELPHIA The Philadelphia Archdiocese concealed sexual abuse by priests for four decades, but no criminal charges can be brought against the church or its priests because of the constraints of state law, according to grand jury findings released Wednesday morning.

Following the nation’s longest-running grand jury probe into priest abuse, the grand jury’s scathing 418 page report documents assaults on children by more than 60 priests, but said state laws, including legal time limits, prevented prosecutors from filing charges.

Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham said, “This is a story that demonstrates a sickening pattern of sexual predation, sexual seduction and indecency, rape, sodomy, abortion, sexual sado masochism, pedophilia, deceit and conspiracy of silence.â€Â

The grand jury explored the possibility of charges against the archdiocese, but said the organization can’t be prosecuted because it is an unincorporated association rather than a corporation.

“Archdiocese leaders have endangered and harmed children in parishes and schools by keeping known abusers in ministry and transferring discovered abusers to assignments where parents and potential victims are unaware of the priests’ sexual predations,†the report said.

“Hundreds if not thousands of children were victimized by the most respected and the most trusted authority figure in their lives, their parish priests,†said Abrams.

The report names 63 priests “whose abusive behavior was well-documented in archdiocese files and by witnesses who testified†before the grand jury.

“Archdiocese officials, up to and including former Cardinals Anthony Bevilacqua and Cardinal Krol chose not to report the abuse to authorities,†Abrams said.

D.A. Lynne Abraham convened the grand jury investigation in April 2002 amid a nationwide scandal following the disclosure of widespread abuse in the Boston Archdiocese. In the Philadelphia area, church officials have said that 44 priests had been “credibly†accused of sexual assaults since the 1950s but only one priest in the archdiocese has been indicted.

“Archdiocese leaders have endangered and harmed children in parishes and schools by keeping known abusers in ministry and transferring discovered abusers to assignments where arents and potential victims are unaware of the priests’ sexual predations,†the report said.

 

[Lewis]

PRIESTS NAMED IN REPORT OF GRAND JURY

Staff report

THE CASES of the following men were detailed by the grand jury report on sexual abuse of minors by priests of the Philadelphia Archdiocese:

• Stanley Gana, ordained 1970, "sexually abused countless boys in a succession of Philadelphia Archdiocese parishes. He was known to kiss, fondle, anally sodomize and impose oral sex on his victims."

• Raymond O. Leneweaver, ordained 1962, allowed to continue as a teacher and priest at different parishes despite frequent confessions that he abused boys.

• Joseph Gausch, said to have sexually abused boys during most of his 54 years as a priest in the archdiocese, beginning in 1945. Gausch died in 1999.

• Nicholas V. Cudemo, ordained 1963, raped an 11-year-old girl, molested a fifth-grader in a confessional and maintained sexually abusive relationships simultaneously with several girls in different schools.

• Peter J. Dunne, ordained 1954, worked in school for delinquent boys and as a Scout leader, once diagnosed as "untreatable pedophile," paid one victim $40,000 for his silence, but continued to work in the archdiocese.

• James J. Brzyski, ordained 1977, told at least two boy victims that their parents authorized him to abuse them; abused at least 100 boys in two archdiocese parishes in seven years.

• David C. Sicoli began career as archdiocesan priest 1975. As reports of abusive relationships with boys came in, was transferred to several parishes and schools.

• John P. O'Connor, ordained 1962, arrested 1984 for molesting a 14-year-old boy in Pennsauken, N.J., transferred to Pittsburgh Diocese, then to Philadelphia, then back to Camden as reports of abuse surfaced.

• Michael J. McCarthy, ordained 1965, diagnosed as "homosexual ephebophile - someone sexually attracted to adolescents." Archdiocese broke off relations with institute that diagnosed him.

• Albert T. Kostelnick, ordained 1954, sexually molested girls aged 6 to 15, including one as she lay in a hospital bed in traction.

• Edward M. DePaoli, ordained 1970, arrested for possessing child pornography, sentenced to one-year probation, later transferred to parishes where parents were unaware of his past.

• David E. Walls, monsignor ordained 1960, sexual abuser of boys and girls but was allowed to remain as vicar for Catholic education before being transferred to parish rectory where the abuse continued.

• Francis P. Rogers, ordained 1946, raped and sexually abused boys during 50 years as priest, being transferred frequently in the archdiocese. He died in February.

• Francis X. Trauger, ordained 1972, transferred eight times, including six times after archdiocese began recording abuse allegations against him.

• John P. Schmeer, ordained 1964, science teacher and guidance counselor in archdiocesan schools for 25 years, named as an abuser by several boys after one of them sued the archdiocese complaining it ignored his abuse allegations.

• Francis A. Giliberti, monsignor ordained 1970, sexually abused two boys who came to him with masturbation problems. One boy was so ashamed he doused his penis with lighter fluid and set it on fire.

• John H. Mulholland, ordained 1965, subject of sexual abuse reports that included sado-masochistic acts, and those involving use of human excrement.

• John F. Gillespie, monsignor ordained 1953, admitted molesting several boys over his career and wanted to make amends. Archdiocese officials ordered him not to apologize to victims.

• Leonard A. Furmanski, monsignor ordained 1959, sexually abused children throughout 44 years as teacher, principal and pastor in archdiocese parishes.

• John J. Delli Carpini, ordained 1976, admitted in 1998 to molesting 13-year-old boy, was diagnosed with a "sexual disorder and a severe personality disorder," but continued working in the archdiocese communications office.

• Thomas J. Wisniewski, ordained 1974, admitted abusing teenage parish boy for three years, but continued to serve as a priest six years after the admission.

• Thomas J. Smith, ordained 1973, engaged in "depraved and sadistic behavior with many boys" in different parishes. After learning of accusations in 2002, archdiocese allowed him to remain active priest for two and a half more years.

• Francis J. Gallagher, ordained 1973, arrested in Sea Isle City, N.J., for soliciting sex with two young men. Admitted sexually abusing two adolescent brothers, but remained an active priest until 2002.

• Thomas F. Shea, ordained 1964, accused of sexual abuse of a boy by a lawyer in 1994. Was promptly removed from ministry because of legal threat.

• John A. Cannon, ordained 1948, molested teenage boys at church summer camp from 1959 to 1964. Admitted to some of the charges, but was allowed to remain a priest until 2004.

• Michael C. Bolesta, ordained 1989, accused by parents in 1991 of sexually abusing 10 boys. Criminal action was threatened. Archdiocese assured parents he would not be assigned where he would have access to children, but was then sent to a parish where he ministered to hospitalized children. Died in 2004.

• Robert L. Brennan, ordained 1964, had "inappropriate contact" with more than 20 boys, but remained a priest and was advised to "keep a low profile."

 

[Lewis]

What I want to know is, why did the RCC ignore this stuff, and just move theses priest around. One priest Robert Brennan who, is in the list of names above. Was told to keep a low profile. In other words we are going to keep you at the same parish, but do your thing on the down low. I do not understand the RCC's stand on these matters, they sure did not seem to be alarmed, at all. We knew a little of this was going on in Philadelphia. But not on the massive scale this turned out to be. I mean you have another priest who is also in the list above, goes to a hospital, and has sex with a little girl who was in traction. And the RCC ignored this act. Somebody must know something that I don't. Because I don't get it.

 

[stray bullet]

I think one would need to address each by a case by case basis to see what exactly the Church did wrong, if anything.

One would also have to investigate the bishop himself and see if the negligance was his and his alone. You don't blame the whole company when a department has been covering itself up.

 

[Lewis]

You don't blame the whole company when a department has been covering itself up.

So are you telling me that the Vatican, did not know about, what was going on ? I think that they did, some stuff I know that the Vatican wasn't told. But some of this stuff I think, they did know.

 

[Lewis]

Case built on archive of memos

By Craig R. McCoy

Inquirer Staff Writer

The grand jury report on sex crimes within the Archdiocese of Philadelphia yesterday painted unforgiving portraits of Cardinals John Krol and Anthony J. Bevilacqua - as architects of a decades-long cover-up that exalted damage control above the cries of children.

With an unremitting fury, the report dipped deep into the church's secret archive of internal documents to make the case that the two cardinals protected scores of child molesters with clerical collars - enabling many to attack again and again.

It said the pair sabotaged investigations, transferred priests to hide them, made a mockery of abusers' therapy, and punished whistle-blowers - all the while keeping police, victims, parents, parishioners and the public in the dark.

In one church memo, Bevilacqua's aides said the cardinal was open to reinstating an accused abuser as a pastor - after an intervening "distant" posting "so that the profile can be as low as possible and not attract the attention of the complainant."

In another memo, Bevilacqua pressured church therapists for "accommodations" in their demand that a molester be closely supervised, the jury said.

In another case, Bevilacqua had the archdiocese harbor a convicted sex offender from the Camden Diocese, then told the pastor supervising him that the priest had been transferred to be near his sick mother, the report said.

The grand jury said Krol and Bevilacqua were alike in their "calculated indifference" to human pain and their unswerving goal of squelching scandal and lawsuit payouts.

But the panel also walked to the brink of calling Bevilacqua a liar.

It said he was "not forthright" in his testimony, that he had been "untruthful," and that his credibility was questionable.

"He certainly was not credible when he claimed before the grand jury that protecting the children was his highest priority," the grand jury report found, "when, in fact, his only priority was to cover up sexual abuse against children."

Striking in its angry tone and its no-holds-barred denunciation of a living cardinal, the report was the result of an investigation that church insiders say has left Bevilacqua shaken. Attempts to talk to the 82-year-old cardinal, who lives behind gated and guarded walls at the St. Charles Borromeo Seminary off City Avenue, were unsuccessful yesterday.

The archdiocese rallied to the defense of both cardinals yesterday, especially Bevilacqua.

In a rebuttal as sharp in its rhetoric as the grand jury report, the church's lawyers said that Bevilacqua had received "perhaps the report's cruelest treatment" and that prosecutors had tried to "bully and intimidate" him - "to trap His Eminence, and to humiliate, prosecute and disrespect him."

Krol, who died in 1996 at age 85, led the diocese from 1961 to 1988. Bevilacqua followed him and served until he reached retirement age in 2003, stepping down a year after the national scandal over abuse broke.

In exhaustive and graphic detail, drawing on 30,084 pages of church documents, the grand jury said Krol was intent on avoiding what the church called "general scandal," transferring priests and pressuring victims not to go to the police.

Bevilacqua, it said, shared his predecessor's obsession with public relations, but also had an abiding interest in limiting the church's legal exposure during years when the abuse problem was beginning to spawn lawsuits elsewhere.

It depicted him as presiding over an institution in which many players had a role in suppressing the truth - investigators who did no investigating, priests who saw abuse and kept silent, staffers who threatened and investigated victims, even therapists as concerned with legal matters as with psychological ones.

In one case during Bevilacqua's tenure, Msgr. John E. Gillespie told his therapists that he wanted to apologize to his victims.

"If he pursues making amends," the therapists wrote church officials, "he could bring forth fresh difficulty for himself and legal jeopardy."

Of the two cardinals, the panel portrayed Bevilacqua, who holds a degree in civil law from St. John's University in New York and a doctorate in canon law from Rome's Gregorian University, as the more sophisticated in his orchestration of the cover-up.

The jury contended that Bevilacqua had his staff cripple the church's investigatory process, shutting a case down as soon as a priest denied assaults and deliberately refraining from interviewing victims and church staff or seeking to corroborate accounts.

The report singled out for repeated criticism Msgr. William J. Lynn, whose staff was charged with investigating abuse complaints.

After saying it was "initially incredulous" that Bevilacqua had praised Lynn's work, the report said, "it became apparent to the grand jurors that Msgr. Lynn was handling the cases precisely as his boss wished."

In their statement, the church's lawyers quoted Lynn as vigorously defending himself and as saying the grand jury had showed a "definite anti-Catholic bias."

The grand jury said Bevilacqua promoted policies designed merely "to sound tough," even as he instructed his staff to mislead the press, the public and parishioners.

When one offending priest was removed from his assignment, the parishioners were told to pray for him - because he had Lyme disease, the grand jury said.

It dismissed as a sham Bevilacqua's policy of "restricted ministry," under which abusers were to be posted to monasteries or nursing homes where contact with children could be minimized.

In fact, the report said, many "restricted" abusers continued to have unchecked access to children.

In part by shopping for favorable therapeutic diagnoses, the grand jury said, Bevilacqua assured that very few priests were actually diagnosed as pedophiles.

While treating abusers with leniency, the grand jury found, Bevilacqua lashed out at those within the diocese who tried to raise an alarm.

After a seminarian came forward to report that the Rev. Stanley Gana was an abuser, "Cardinal Bevilacqua ordered an investigation - of the seminarian," the jury said.

Bevilacqua refused to allow the victim to complete his studies and forced him to seek ordination outside the diocese. In their rebuttal, the church's lawyers said Bevilacqua's rejection of the seminarian as a priest had nothing to do with his abuse complaints.

In another episode under Bevilacqua, the jury said, a nun was fired from her post as director of religious education after raising concerns about a priest convicted of possessing pornography who seemed to be intent on seducing a boy.

Among the findings about the retired cardinal:

Bevilacqua included one molester, the Rev. Albert Kostelnick, at a 1997 luncheon honoring priests, and promoted him, even though the church had received a constant stream of abuse allegations against him, including an eyewitness account from a fellow priest.

The grand jury said Kostelnick had the church's highest documented count of victims - 18.

He was not removed until last year, after Bevilacqua had left office, the jury noted.

Kostelnick confessed last year to a church review board that, even after Bevilacqua promoted him, he had kept to his "longstanding habit" of "fondling the breasts of young girls," the jury said.

Bevilacqua worked a deal with church officials in New Jersey to temporarily take in a Philadelphia priest, the Rev. Edward DePaoli, after DePaoli was convicted of possessing $15,000 in child pornography.

This, Bevilacqua wrote in a memo, would "put a sufficient period between the publicity and the reinstatement in the active ministry of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia."

DePaoli was reinstated.

Bevilacqua returned the favor with a convicted sex offender from New Jersey, the Rev. John Connor, putting him in a Conshohocken parish, where the priest later "showered attentions and gifts on a boy in the parish grade school," the jury wrote.

In an internal church memo, this trading off of problem priests was called "bishops helping bishops."

Bevilacqua added a handwritten note to a church memo that Connor posed a "serious risk," but later told the grand jury he had not known that Connor's conduct involved a minor.

It was this testimony that the grand jury said was "untruthful."

Bevilacqua promoted the Rev. David C. Sicoli to a head pastor's post even though Sicoli's career had been punctuated with abuse allegations, including the abuse of four boys in the 1980s.

Sicoli continued to harm new victims once promoted, the jury found, but Bevilacqua did nothing, leaving him as pastor despite complaints from parish staff that the priest kept boys living with him at rectories.

According to the grand jury, Sicoli was also still in ministry when Bevilacqua stepped down. The cardinal quit without asking for an investigation of Sicoli, despite assuring the public that the church now had a "zero-tolerance" policy.

A church review board, scrutinizing Sicoli after Bevilacqua's departure, determined that he had abused 11 boys during his career, including victims assaulted after the cardinal ignored the earlier charges against him.

While the grand jury brought no charges, it suggested that archdiocesan officials ultimately would face a verdict in some other forum.

"We do not mean to imply here that the motives of the archdiocesan officials were less blameworthy than those of abusive priests," the report said.

"Indeed, judged on a moral scale, the opposite conclusion might be reached, and we trust that someday there will be such a judgment."

 

[stray bullet]

You don't blame the whole company when a department has been covering itself up.

So are you telling me that the Vatican, did not know about, what was going on ? I think that they did, some stuff I know that the Vatican wasn't told. But some of this stuff I think, they did know.

There is nothing in the report that suggests it was known by the Vatican. In fact, it seems to be keptive secretive within the diocese, to the point of firing clergy for knowing anything.

 

[stray bullet]

Case built on archive of memos

I read over the report- the problem is it is based on accusations and records within the diocese. Even they admit they have little to no case to make.

Within any organization, there is going to be a ton of reports of misconduct. I can only imagine how many accusations and reports you could find in a public school.

 

[Lewis]

Ok I understand what you are saying, but what about all thoses names in the above post. It seems like, if they put them names out there like that. They must have proof. Or they could get the pants sued off, of them for putting them names out there like that.

 

[stray bullet]

No, it is an investigation.

For example, you can mention someone's name that is a suspect, even though he or she might not be found guilty.

 

[Rick W]

Somehow I just can't believe the Vatican didn't get wind of this. Pope John Paul had been ignoring the problem for quite some time doing only what was required in some areas but not really addressing the issue head-on.
Pope Benedict does not hold to that approach.
He has to start somewhere and this action he's taking sends a strong message. I seriously expect he'll be targeting other issues as well. This isn't over by a long shot.

Vatican Probes for Gays

 

[stray bullet]

Somehow I just can't believe the Vatican didn't get wind of this.

Remember, a diocese are the ones that pick their priests and educate them. Most priests will even be born in that diocese I'm sure, therefore everything about them is the responsibility of the diocese.

A very bad Bishop could easily appoint a series of bad priests and cover up their mistakes for his own benefit and reputation. The only way for the Vatican to then find out is if someone went over the bishop, which can be done. However, since they made no reports to the police at the time, it seems unlikely they bothered to go the trouble of contacting his superior.

 

[thessalonian]

The report also said that cases were 25-50 years ago I heard yesterday. Most of the cases in this whole priest abuse thing are quite old and so it seems to me that the Church has done something about it contrary to the implicatiosn here. By the way, you guys love this issue but it is no small problem in Protestant Churches as well.

http://www.reformation.com

I've also seen reports that among the denominations, mostly Protestant there are 70 insurance claims per week for various forms of sexual abuse. This keeps things out of the news. Thats over 3500 per year.

Further, there is alot of extramarital hanky panky going on among protestant clergy. 13% of Baptist pastors have had sexual encounters with women, some who they were counseling. Very unethical. You don't hear much about this on the news. Rarely do you hear a Church having a pastor resign over it.

 

[Lewis]

Thessalonian have you read this true story ? I did, and it still makes me angry, and I read it 2 years ago.

http://www.jesus-is-lord.com/charlot1.htm

 

[cj]

By the way, you guys love this issue but it is no small problem in Protestant Churches as well.

The apple does not fall far from the tree.

Or as scripture puts it, the prostituting mother produced harlot daughters.

In love,
cj

 

[thessalonian]

Thessalonian have you read this true story ? I did, and it still makes me angry, and I read it 2 years ago.

http://www.jesus-is-lord.com/charlot1.htm

Lewis,

What do you want me to do about it. A wanna be nun had a bad experience. There was some scandal going on. Do you think I'm going to head for the exits because some priests and nuns did't live up to their call and behaved badly. Why do you think that Paul warns against scandal? It is because it will allow people like you to use it to root out those who are weak in their faith. The Church is a hospital for sinners rather than a hotel for saints. If you have a Church without sinners, I hope you don't mind if I call you a liar. Paul chastised the Cornithians for not disciplining one among them who was living with his fathers wife. Don't see where he said, your church is wrong so find a different one. In revelations John notes the sins of various communities. He doesn't tell the members to find new Churches. He tells them to clean up there act. Paul even says of himself 'the good that I would do I do not, while the EVIL that I would not do I do". Rip those pages right out of the Bible. And Peter catered to those Jews in Antioch over the gentiles. Scandal! Guess we better rip his books out as well. David and Bethsheeba, now theres a story for you and Hophni and Phineas, two priests having little trysts with virgins IN FRONT OF THE DOORWAY OF THE TENT OF THE MEETING. Jewish priests sacrificing children. I guess the Jews were in the wrong Church. Someone should have started up a new denomination that was the true Church because they were definitely proven wrong by all of this. And of course we had 11 of 12 Apostles completely abandoning or betraying Jesus so everyone should have been outraged. They obviously were proven false. This is sarcasm Lewis so don't answer these like this is what I really think.

Hey did you know that there were alot of Protestants in the KKK. Even some pastors. This mud slinging really proves nothing Lewis.

Blessings

 

[Lewis]

This is sarcasm Lewis so don't answer these like this is what I really think.

Hey did you know that there were alot of Protestants in the KKK. Even some pastors. This mud slinging really proves nothing Lewis.

Cool down man, everything is alright, you are ok with me. But still that story did make me mad. And yes there are phony Christians in the KKK, who can't be real Christians. As a matter of fact they are not Christians at all.

 

[thessalonian]

This is sarcasm Lewis so don't answer these like this is what I really think.

Hey did you know that there were alot of Protestants in the KKK. Even some pastors. This mud slinging really proves nothing Lewis.

Cool down man, everything is alright, you are ok with me. But still that story did make me mad. And yes there are phony Christians in the KKK, who can't be real Christians. As a matter of fact they are not Christians at all.

What makes you think I am not cool. I handle such issues directly because that is what the require. All this finger pointing is hypocrytical. Look in to your own Church and straighten it out instead of pointing fingers.

 

[Lewis]

Well my church pastor does not tolerate, crap from his members if he knows about it. He will get with you right quick, and don't care how you feel about it.
He leads by living the Word of God as best as humanly possible, he is not perfect, but who is ? My church goes outside the 4 walls to do many things to let people know the Word of God. But we have people who mess up and do stupid things within the congregation, but when found out, they are pulled to the side quick, fast and in a hurry. Some Christians can be some of the most messed up people on earth, and I know that, and that is within the body as a whole. But what makes me mad about the Catholics, is that they have pushed stuff out there, that is not scripture, like purgatory, and a bunch of other unscriptural stuff. Thereby leading people down the wrong road.

 

[SputnikBoy]

I've noticed over the years how vast amounts of compensation can appear to ease the pain of the 'sexually abused'. While I'm not giving any opinion about anything else that I've been reading on this thread - to be honest, it's a topic that I'm sick of hearing about - the idea of financial gain seems to have brought scores of 'victims' out of the woodwork.

It's been many years now since I was institutionalized as a ward of the state and in the hands of foster parents who didn't have the first clue as to how to handle kids. I feel that the only qualification required for the job were that the applicant be willing to take the job. I and many other kids suffered much physical and emotional (and possibly sexual) abuse over the years at the hands of (often cruel) incompetents. The last thing on my mind, however, was to ever go out of my way to name and shame these people. Most if not all of them are probably dead by now anyway since they all seemed 'ancient' to us kids then.

Even before becoming a Christian I never had the desire to seek revenge (or justice as some call it) for someone's past deeds toward me, even though there were a handful of live-in foster parents that I'd absolutely hated and feared. Yep, I guess I was the classic 'emotionally scarred kid' the psychs tell us about, and I still live with a certain amount of emotional 'baggage'. Later, as a Christian, however, I took on board the idea of literal forgiveness. It really was no problem for me to forgive my enemies as I would wish also to be forgiven by those whom I may have wronged along the way.

So, to all of the whining 'victims' of 'whatever' out there (some even going back 20/30/40/50 years, what the ...??!!) I would suggest that you try the same method of resolving your problems. God asks us to forgive, in fact the consequences for not doing so are quite dire for the individual. The judicial system doesn't make allowances for forgiveness, in fact it encourages the opposite. So many professed Christians of today are so caught up in 'the system' that they've lost the plot. Nothing can be gained from topics such as this, the intent of which seems to be none other than to incite anger. Why don't we drop it and move on?