UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave
Kevin O’Brien
Not long ago I asked, “What would you do?” regarding a predator priest in the archdiocese of St. Paul, who had a long history of sexual misconduct with teen aged boys and who kept a camper on the parking lot of his parish, where he eventually molested two boys who were not yet teens. Nobody told me what they would do, but Archbishop Nienstadt did nothing. For this he was praised by conservative Catholics.
Well, there’s another scandal in St. Paul, and you can read about it in detail at the Minnesota Public Radio site … but let me summarize it for you.
While a transitional deacon waiting to be ordained to the priesthood, Jon Shelley caught the attention of counselors at a retreat center, who noted that he had trouble keeping proper boundaries with boys, and “wrestled” with some of them in a swimming pool.
After being ordained, Fr. Shelley allowed an 18-year-old boy to live in the rectory with him at one point.
Thousands of gay pornographic images were discovered on Shelley’s computer in 2004, some apparently of boys.
Search terms such as “free naked boy pictures” were found on Shelley’s computer.
When the archdiocese learned of these photos and search terms, they asked Shelley to turn his two other personal computers over to them. He refused, smashing one with a hammer.
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