UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary
February 13, 2016 Joelle Casteix
Eric Johnson is the man who was sexually abused by Fr. Bruce Wellems when Wellems was teen and Eric was seven (photo above). In the piece below, he responds to Bruce Wellems’ statements to the Chicago Tribune. He also responds to commenters on this blog, who say that they are parishioners who say that they love and have forgiven the accused priest.
On Sunday, the Chicago Tribune ran a page-one piece about the case of Fr. Bruce Wellems, a Chicago priest who admitted to luring a seven-year-old boy from basketball games and then sexually abusing him multiple times during the course of a year. Wellems was an older teenager at the time.
Did the Claretians (the religious order to which Wellems belongs) adhere to their promises of transparency and tell Catholics about Wellems?
No … in fact, Claretian officials ordered their priests to destroy emails about Wellems and his crimes.
In 2014, did the Archdiocese of Los Angeles adhere to their promises of transparency and give parishioners in San Gabriel the correct information about Wellems? Did they post information about Wellems’ admission on their website, the parish website, or attempt to reach out to other potential victims?
No. They made one announcement from the pulpit, and then kept parishioners in the dark about the allegations. In fact, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and Archbishop Jose Gomez allowed parishioners to believe that the allegations and admissions stemmed from a “consensual dating relationship.”
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