Cardinal Dolan: Where Are My Twenty Thousand Dollars?

By Bob Hoatson
Voice from the Desert
June 5, 2012

http://reform-network.net/?p=16730

CARDINAL DOLAN: WHERE ARE MY TWENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS?

If Catholics wish to live by the axiom, “once a priest, always a priest,” than I guess I am still a priest despite the fact that I was voluntarily laicized in December, 2011. So, I write as a priest, ex-priest, inactive priest, renegade priest, or gadfly priest. I have been called all of these and more. The verbiage is irrelevant. What is relevant is that pedophile priests are not laicized as quickly as I was and most of them will always be priests despite their dastardly deeds which would have gotten them kicked out of most organizations by now.

The archbishop of my diocese wrote to me when I first requested laicization and told me he would highly recommend that my petition to the Vatican be approved. It was – in record time. His “glee” at my request was centered on the fact that I had been working with victims since 1981 when I reported sexual abuse of students by a priest at a large Catholic high school in Boston. I also have uncovered numerous cases of pedophilia in my home archdiocese and beyond. I asked to be freed to do this work full-time. The archbishop refused.

I told him I had to respond to the Holy Spirit and the law of the Church, which allows and encourages the faithful to establish charitable works and organizations. Canon law was written to protect bishops and whatever they determine to be the “law” for the rest of the faithful. Currently, God’s law is subservient to whatever law the bishops wish to utilize.

I informed the archbishop that it was the Holy Spirit who was calling me to do the work I was doing, and the last time I looked, the Holy Spirit is still God, according to Catholic theology. God’s call wasn’t good enough for the archbishop, it seems. The archbishop knew better than God, and herein lies the problem with bishops.

Unfortunately, most bishops believe they are on a par with God rather than humble servants who facilitate the spread of the Gospel and good works toward all. If these men were more “facilitating” than “dictatorial,” the Church wouldn’t be in the mess it’s in today. And pedophile priests wouldn’t have received payouts from at least one bishop to get them out of their hair and hide their crimes.

To pressure me to cease my charitable works, the archbishop fired me from inner-city school ministry after I testified before a state legislature and called for the resignation of any bishop who has covered up sexual abuse of children. He also put me on administrative leave after I filed a lawsuit against him and my abusers and suspended my priestly faculties.

He lowered my salary twice, took away some of my benefits, and pressured me to stop engaging in a work that is sorely needed in the Church and about which he could have boasted to his fellow bishops. His archdiocese could have been the model program for helping victims of clergy sexual abuse. Instead, he chose darkness over light.

What happened to pedophile priests in the same archdiocese? In most cases, their salaries, benefits and even assignments were maintained and are to this day. They were and are treated kindly, compassionately, and with respect. In one case, the pedophile priest was described by one bishop as “that poor man, what he’s been through.” The whistle-blower priest is harassed, fired, retaliated against, and strangled financially. He doesn’t know if his next check will even be sent.

Whereas Vatican matters can take years to decide, my laicization was successfully completed in a matter of months, largely because the archbishop was full-force behind it. The only thing missing in his letter was a check for $20,000.00. Isn’t that what priests who leave the priesthood receive or are these “gifts” relegated only to pedophile priests?

Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D. was a priest of the Archdiocese of Newark for nearly fifteen years and an Irish Christian Brother for twenty-three years. He was sexually propositioned, groomed or abused several times as a religious and seminarian, beginning in 1970 and concluding in 1996. He founded Road to Recovery in 2003 to assist victims of sexual abuse and has helped over one thousand survivors and their families. Currently, he is a complainant/creditor in the bankruptcy procedure of the North American Province of the Irish Christian Brothers. He resides in West Orange, New Jersey. He may be reached at roberthoatson@gmail.com or 862-368-2800.