Road to Recovery Responds to Vatican Decision Regarding Msgr. Wallace Harris of the Archdiocese of New York

By Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D.
Voice from the Desert
February 3, 2012

http://reform-network.net/?p=15061

The January 26, 2012 edition of the New York Archdiocesan newspaper, Catholic New York, carried a story regarding the decision of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to assign Msgr. Wallace Harris, former pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Harlem, to “a life of prayer and penance.” Road to Recovery’s response to this news is one of outrage and disgust. Cardinal-designate Dolan is fully aware of the fact that Msgr. Harris had many victims, including the courageous Eric Crumbley who publicly announced that he had been sexually abused by Harris while a student at Cathedral Prep and a youth member of St. Joseph of the Holy Family Parish in Harlem.

Msgr. Wallace Harris should be defrocked by the Vatican, and Cardinal-designate Dolan should petition the Holy Father to do so. Harris had access to teenage boys during most of his priesthood, including stints at Cathedral Prep High School, Cardinal Hayes High School, and parish youth programs throughout Harlem and the Bronx. The many victims who have already come forward to report their abuse by Harris deserve better. By relegating Harris to a life of prayer and penance, the Vatican is sending a message that he will never truly be held accountable for his extensive and despicable abuse of young men. He must be stripped of his priesthood and Cardinal-designate Dolan should insist on it.

Why did the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith not defrock him? Was it because Cardinal-designate Dolan recommended that he not be defrocked? It appears that the Vatican would not have acted without the recommendation of the Archbishop of New York. It is interesting that Cardinal-designate Dolan has not made public statements about any of the NY priests recently who have sexually abused children, gambled parish money away, or fathered children before ordination to the priesthood.

When the news about the million dollar theft of money from the education finance office of the Archdiocese by a lay woman with a history of criminal behavior broke in the media, Dolan was in the Holy Land leading a group of fifty priests on a tour. He should have been in New York publicly condemning what Msgr. Wallace Harris did, meeting with his many victims, explaining why a priest who had fathered a child was ordained to the priesthood, what was being done about a priest who gambled parish money away, and why the Schools’ Office of the Archdiocese did not monitor its personnel adequately. It’s time the Cardinal-designate stopped smiling for the cameras and dealt with serious breaches of the Gospel by his priests and lay persons.

Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D.

Co-founder and President

Road to Recovery, Inc.

P.O. Box 279

Livingston, NJ 07039

862-368-2800

Contact: roberthoatson@gmail.com