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  Paraclete Doc: Guest-Priests Enter Ministerial Work and No Details of a Clinical Nature Need Be Made Known Minutes from Feb 1967 Meeting

By Kay Ebeling
City of Angels
November 15, 2010

http://cityofangels8.blogspot.com/2010/11/paraclete-doc-guest-priests-enter.html

[pdf] With CofA Blog now in Albuquerque, we begin what should be an outpouring of information about the Servants of the Paraclete treatment center for priests with "psycho-sexual problems." Started in 1949 with the best intentions of providing spiritual renewal and prison-like oversight of problem priests, Via Coeli in Jemez Springs morphed by the 1960s into a psychology-dependent almost New Age secular rehab that was so assured of its success treating pedophilia that it sent its priests into local parishes while they were still in treatment, thus creating an inordinately high number of victims of clergy sex crimes in the region around Jemez Springs in Northern New Mexico

Scanned here for you to click enlarge and read are minutes from a February 13, 1967, meeting held: "To present to the archbishop a plan whereby guest-priests under the care of the Servants of the Paraclete could enter into ministerial work in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe as a final step in a graduated program of rehabilitation begun at Via Coeli Monastery, and continued through the Paraclete houses in Albuquerque and Santa Fe."

The minutes were among documents found during the discovery phase of the L.A. Clergy Cases that settled in 2007, where Cardinal Roger Mahony authorized payment of $660 million to 510 plaintiffs and avoided testifying in trials where these documents would have been released by much more mainstream media than City of Angels Blog.

The Archbishop of Santa Fe and Servants of the Paraclete leaders felt it prudent not to tell local parishes about the problems the out-patient priests brought with them, the minutes reveal, as you can read on Page 2:

"In placing men in the parishes, the Archbishop would use his judgment and discretion in informing the pastors only of what he thought they must absolutely know about the priest they were receiving, so that they might more effectively work with the man."

The minutes continue: "No details or particulars of a clinical nature need be made known regarding the man's past history."

"The Archbishop seemed immediately receptive to the idea (of placing out-patient priests in parishes) and added his own personal interest in and concern for the work, then proposed the following parishes as suitable fur such a plan:

In Albuquerque:

Sacred Heart

St. Anza's

San Felipe

Our Lady of Fatima

Queen of Heaven

Holy Ghost

Our Lady of Assumption

St. Francis Xavier

St. Bernadette's

St. Theresa

Annunciation

Immaculate Conception

St. Charles

Holy Family

St. Edwin's

Ascension

Our Lady of Guadalupe

Nativity EVM (Alameda)

St. Clement's (Los Lunas)

(My God, how big was the population of Albuquerque in 1967 that they even had this many Catholic Churches. City of Angels will be absorbing local culture as we remain in Albuquerque.)

More from the Minutes page 2:

"The point was made that the program as so far stated might carry with it an inconvenience in terms of constant personnel changes in the parishes. The Archbishop remarked that there were enough parishes available to obviate that problem… He repeated that the priests of the archdiocese were ready and willing to help in this operation."

(More from page 2-3, where as CofA Blog reads it, The Catholic Church through SotP experimented with the people in local New Mexico parishes, used them as guinea pigs to see if pedophile priests who completed treatment were ready for full-time assignments or not:)

"It was further agreed that the parochial assignment was to be of an indefinite nature, lasting as long as was necessary for the man to give evident signs that he had readjusted well to the ministry and was now deserving of a full time assignment, either in his home diocese, his religious community, or in whatever opportune situation he might be placed. It was agreed that should a man fail to measure up in his parochial assignment, he should be returned to a Paraclete house, preferably in the Canyon, where efforts at his priestly renewal might begin again."

The Paraclete New Mexico Corporation?

Page 3 goes on to discuss teaching opportunities for the Servants of the Paraclete out-patients as "not feasible at the moment, with one possible exception, at St. Vincent's Academy." Also on Page 3: They're adding four more rooms because of the "influx of guests," the $10,000 cost would be referred to the Paraclete New Mexico Corporation.

The Archbishop "spoke of his admiration for the professional services being extended to the Paracletes by Dr. Frank Rowe (Howe? It's hard to read this 1967 typewriter with its ink splotches), and Dr. John Salazar."

Also on Page 3, the Archbishop, concerned about overcrowding and understaffing, "cautioned that we not allow a large number of specifically ill-adjusted emotional cases to accumulate in one place."

Dr. Salazar interjects:

"So far as treating the seriously disturbed (in the psycho-sexual sphere) no good is gained from segregating these individuals from men with dissimilar problems. This only serves to accentuate their feelings of being cut off from society."

(Thanks for being so concerned about the needs of the perpetrators, Dr. Salazar.)

More from the Minutes:

"Fr. Connolly then reminded the group that an integral part of the Paraclete apostolate was and always would be the care of those who, either by personal decision or obvious signs, would NOT return to the active ministry. He pointed out the benefits to community life some of these 'retired' priests were able to make."

(Again, no one ever wonders what happened to the victims of these "priests with boundary problems" but they are so concerned that the perpetrators are well tended.)

Page 4 of the Minutes from February 1967:

"The Archbishop was in agreement that Via Coeli existed to help priests in whatever capacity possible or necessary…. He pointed out there is an area of reasonableness to be hoped for between luxury and poverty and that a pleasant and liveable [SIC] kind of living quarters was a factor in a man's readjustment and rehabilitation."

Then they go on to discuss how well the AA program is fitting in to the Servants of the Paraclete treatment plan.

Minutes submitted by Fr. John Feit, 2/15/67

Attending this meeting where they all agreed it was great to send pedophiles into local parishes were:

Most Rev. James P. Davis, Archbishop

Rev. John Vincent

Rev. Edwin Connolly

Rev. John Feit

Rev. Patrick Hulcahy

Rev. Harry Kenney

John Salazar, Ph.D.

 
 

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