ILLINOIS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Monday, Feb. 22, 2016
Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 503 0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org)
Once again, a priest who was ousted elsewhere for having “inappropriate images of students” was quietly sent to our area to work with no warning to parishioners. And once again, a priest who engaged in “inappropriate conduct” here has been quietly sent away, with no notice to parishioners, and is probably working now among unsuspecting colleagues and congregants in Philadelphia, Phoenix or Portland.
And Catholic officials try to convince us they’re changing and being more “transparent.” Hardly.
Two dioceses – San Francisco and Belleville – have kicked the cleric out. Neither told the public or parishioners that they had done so or the reasons behind their decisions.
The troubled cleric is Fr. Peter Balili, a native of the Phillipines. He worked at St. Mary Parish in Sesser and St. Andrew Parish in Christopher. (He also worked in parishes in two California dioceses – San Bernardino and San Francisco – and studied in Orange, California for six years in the 1990s. He studied at Notre Dame University, is a native of the Phillipines and was once with a religious order called Opus Dei Fathers.
He was also affiliated with a group called “Shrines of Europe Pilgrimage.”
No Catholic official in any of the five places where Fr. Balili spent time has bothered to alert Catholics or citizens about him and or detail the accusations against him. “The Belleville Diocese dismissed him because of instances of what it viewed as ‘inappropriate conduct regarding certain of his parishioners.’ The notice did not specify the nature of that conduct or the age of the parishioners,” according to the Post-Dispatch.
We’ve seen this kind of language time and time again used by Catholic officials. It usually refers to sexual misdeeds or crimes. But bishops owe their flocks more honesty than this.
Belleville Bishop Edward Braxton is among the most secretive bishops in the US.
We beg anyone who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes or misdeeds by Fr. Balili, to show courage, call police, protect others and start healing.
(Fr. Balili also worked in parishes in two California dioceses – San Bernardino and San Francisco – and studied in Orange, California for six years in the 1990s. He studied at Notre Dame University, is a native of the Phillipines and was once with a religious order called Opus Dei Fathers.)
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