UNITED STATES
dotCommonweal
Grant Gallicho
November 7, 2014
The main story on the Daily Beast right now has a headline worthy of a supermarket checkout lane: “Chicago Priests Raped & Pillaged for 50 Years.” The author, Barbie Latza Nadeau, gives the impression that she has examined a good portion of the fifteen thousand pages of files released by the Archdiocese of Chicago yesterday morning. She has read all about “accusations against perverted priests.” She’s seen “handwritten letters penned by worried mothers,” and “emails sent decades after the abuses occurred.” She’s squinted at “letters so old the mimeographed typewriting is smudged.” She’s even read “emails so recent, they call into question just how much of the clerical abuse is still going on.” This careful research has provided Nadeau with the following insight:
The allegations include accusations of priests plying young victims with alcohol and cigarettes, of fondling, masturbating, and performing oral sex on minors, and a strong current of denial and well-documented coverup by the church that can be traced all the way to Rome.
Her proof? “Take the case of Father Gregory Miller, whose 275-page dossier is filled with congratulatory letters of advancement within the archdiocese,” Nadeau writes, noting that the file is also “dotted with frequent warnings of misconduct.” She details the first accusation, then reports, “A few years later, Miller’s assignment as a parish priest was renewed.” And “in 2012,” according to Nadeau, “a new complainant wrote an email to Leah McCluskey of the Chicago Archdiocese’s abuse committee.” She continues: “More disturbing still, despite what were clearly repeat allegations, the archdiocese’s vicar general, John Canary, wrote the errant priest to tell him that he was not to be alone with anyone under age 18, seemingly apologizing for the trouble.”
It all sounds so familiar, doesn’t it? Victims’ alegations falling on deaf ears. Church officials protecting, even promoting, priests they knew posed a threat to children. Tone-deaf churchmen praising a man who deserved jail time instead of congratulations. And this story would certainly merit the outrage it is meant to inspire, if Nadeau’s narrative were true. But, as a review of the Miller file makes clear, her version of events is about as valuable as the paper it isn’t printed on.
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