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Rockville Centre Resources – December 2002 By Michael Rezendes, and Sacha Pfeiffer As the Boston Archdiocese edged closer yesterday to a bankruptcy filing that could suspend action on clergy sexual abuse lawsuits, lawyers for alleged victims released the church personnel files of another seven priests accused of sexual misconduct over the last four decades. Unlike the records of eight priests released last week, which showed Cardinal Bernard F. Law keeping priests accused of egregious acts of sexual misconduct in active ministry, several of the files released yesterday show Law acting to remove some priests accused of sexual abuse. But Jeffrey A. Newman of the law firm Greenberg Traurig, which represents about half of the 450 victims with abuse claims against the archdiocese, said the records released yesterday further document a pattern of consistent failure by Law and his top aides to adequately supervise errant priests. "The records show that the archdiocese did not have an adequate policy in place to recognize and spot these things when they occurred, notwithstanding the fact that Law and his bishops knew there was a significant problem when Law arrived in the archdiocese in 1984," Newman said. Information in the newly released files shows that: * The archdiocese removed the Rev. Denis A. Conte from active ministry in 1994 after receiving a $10 million demand letter from a lawyer representing a 26-year-old man who alleged that Conte had sexually abused him from 1979 to 1982, when he was 11 or 12. The case was settled for $150,000 in 1995. The man also alleged that Conte provided him with pornographic books and pictures, tied him to a rectory bed, and performed oral sex on him while telling him he was "being crucified like Christ." Confronted with the allegation in 1994, Conte admitted that he had shared a bed with the boy and that he had kissed him on the lips, because, he said, it was "Italian tradition" to do so. But he denied that he had sexually abused the boy. * The Rev. Paul F. Manning, who was found not guilty on criminal charges of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old altar boy in 1994, was later accused by a man and a woman of sexually molesting them when they were minors. Law stripped Manning of his right to say Mass and publicly represent himself as a priest in 1996, after Manning failed to cooperate in a church investigation of charges that he had abused the altar boy. * Law allowed the Rev. George C. Berthold, the former dean of St. John's Seminary in Brighton, to take a teaching position at a Catholic college in North Carolina after Berthold had been dismissed for having improper contact with two seminarians at St. John's. The files also show that the archdiocese paid the legal expenses of some priests in a manner apparently designed to avoid the scrutiny of the Internal Revenue Service. In a 1994 letter to Manning, Monsignor William F. Murphy, then moderator of the curia for the archdiocese, explained that Law had obtained money for a legal assistance fund from an anonymous donor. That money, Murphy explained, was lent to priests needing financial help at an annual rate of 7 percent. But Murphy said the loans were made with no due date and would be paid back "if and when the priest is ever in a position so to do." He also said the archdiocese made the payments for legal expenses in the form of a loan "because if it were not a loan, the priest would have to report it to the IRS as income, as a gift." The files released yesterday included the records of the Rev. Edward J. McDonagh, the Rev. Gary E. Balcom, the Rev. Paul J. Moriarty, and the Rev. William J. Scanlan. Some of the files contained only scant information about sexual abuse allegations. For instance, the file on Moriarty, who died in 1982 after serving in 10 assignments during his 34-year career, contains only a single anonymous complaint taken in 1992. The file on Scanlan shows he was accused of sexually abusing a girl while at St. James Parish in Stoughton in late 1996 and early 1997. But no criminal charges were brought againt him, and he has passed a lie detector test and denied the accusation. And the McDonagh files shows that a single second-hand complaint that he raped a teenage Melrose boy in the early 1960s led to his removal from St. Ann's Parish in West Bridgewater earlier this year. Balcom, who died two months ago, was removed from active ministry in 1992, apparently after a single allegation of abuse. A few months later, a former altar boy at Immaculate Conception Church in Weymouth wrote church officials to say he had been molested by Balcom from the time he was in the sixth or seventh grade until he was 17 years old. [Photo Caption: Skeptical Reaction - Lawyer Mitchell Garabedian (right) said yesterday that Catholic officials are using the threat of bankruptcy to get victims of clergy sexual abuse to settle their claims. With him were clients Tony Muzzi of Scituate and Patrick MacSorley of Hyde Park. / Globe Staff Photo / Bill Greene]
By Robin Washington, Franci Richardson, Marie Szaniszlo and Jules Crittenden The files on eight more priests and one religious brother unveiled yesterday detail allegations that include molestation on a cross-country trip, cocaine use and child pornography, and a priest cleared by the church's clergy sex abuse Review Board but removed on the same charge after the current scandal erupted. Here are summaries of their cases: - The Rev. Alfred Murphy, O.S.A. During the summer of 1983, Murphy, pastor of Lawrence's Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, paid a 17-year-old member of his congregation to accompany him on a three-week, cross-country trip in his newly purchased Winnebago, a lawsuit states. On the trip, he allegedly preyed on the boy nightly. "The priest approached (the victim) while he was sleeping, removed his underpants and then fondled and caressed the boy as well as himself . . .," reads a complaint filed nearly nine years later by the boy's attorney, John Corrigan Jr. The teen tried to avoid the abuse, the complaint asserts, by staying awake as long as possible, but after he fell asleep each of the 21 nights, the attacks occurred. A member of the Order of St. Augustine, Murphy did not return several calls from the Herald to the order's St. Thomas Monastery in Villanova, Penn. Because Murphy is an order priest, Bernard Cardinal Law does not have jurisdiction over him. - The Rev. George Callahan, O.S.A. Just before Murphy's Winnebago trip, another Augustine priest at the Lawrence parish attempted to molest the same 17-year-old victim, the same complaint states. Callahan, who had been drinking Scotch whisky, allegedly lured the victim up to his room and made sexual advances toward him, asking, "if he wanted to 'get closer to God,' and if so, he should 'get undressed and get closer to him.' " In a separate complaint, Callahan allegedly sexually harassed a 22-year-old Lawrence church employee in 1993. The alleged victim, who was married with two children, was eventually awarded $ 17,000. Callahan, who is no longer listed in the Official Catholic Directory, was last known residing at the Augustine monastery in Villanova. Callahan, like Murphy, is an order priest and Law has no jurisdiction over him. - The Rev. Ross Frey Placed on administrative leave in 1996, Frey was alleged to have molested at least 11 adolescent boys in the 1970s and 1980s during weekend retreats at St. Basil Salvatorian Center in Methuen. Attorneys for the men, now in their late 30s and early 40s, say Frey was a charismatic priest who chose his victims carefully, allegedly molesting one boy after the youngster's mother asked the priest to break the news to her son that his stepbrother had just been killed in an accident. "Only those youths who were most vulnerable were picked to become victims," attorney Richard Fleming wrote in a June 17, 1996, letter to the Salvatorian Center, adding that Frey sometimes used the confessional as the stage for his assaults. Several boys reported the assaults to the Salvatorian Center's staff, only to be ignored, he said. "That will teach you not to take your pants down for anybody," the Rev. Martin Hyatt, another priest at the center, reportedly told one. - The Rev. James F. Power The archdiocese agreed in 1996 to pay $ 35,000 to settle a complaint against Power, now 72, but a review board found insufficient evidence to support a claim of abuse against him. "The cardinal accepted this recommendation on Jan. 9, 1997. Alleluia!" the Rev. William F. Murphy, Law's delegate, wrote to Power. Power was allowed to go back to parish duty that year, and was sent to St. James the Great in Wellesley. The allegation originally emerged in 1992, when the young man approached Power and allegedly demanded money, accusing him of sexually abusing him on a camping trip to Maine's Acadia National Park in 1980. Power reported the matter to church authorities. Power never admitted guilt in the settlement, and the records do not indicate any other complaints against him. Power was removed from parish duty in February 2002 as part of a wave of suspensions for old sex abuse allegations. He could not be located for comment yesterday. - Brother Ricardo Upon entering the Christian Brothers Order in 1964, James Comack took the name of Brother Ricardo and in two years became headmaster at St. John's Preparatory School in Danvers. It was then that he orally sodomized a student who had endured a serious beating, and threatened to keep him from graduating should he report the assault, the single complaint in his file states. One spring evening, Ricardo took the senior from Lowell to the hospital where he received kidney X-rays. To help him feel better, Ricardo gave the student a back massage before coaxing him onto his back, where he began massaging the victim's thighs. "Br. Ricardo concluded the sordid episode by orally sodomizing (the victim)," read the 1994 complaint. The disposition of Ricardo's case is unclear from his file. - The Rev. Richard J. Ahern The director of the Stigmatine's Camp Elm Bank in Wellesley in the 1960s, Ahern allegedly took advantage of a 13-year-old boy who had lost his father, ordering two other teens to hold him down while he masturbated him, a 1993 complaint asserts. "The two boys held me down, while Fr. Ahern began to touch my penis and testicles. . . . When I climaxed, I felt so ashamed as if I were to blame." Ahern and another priest, whose full name was not included in the complaint, together abused the victim in another weekend incident, the complaint reads. Ahern, who died last year, was the subject of another complaint by an altar boy who served when Ahern was a pastor at Our Lady of Angels Church in Woodbridge, Va., between 1959 and 1961. An altar boy ultimately alerted the area bishop that Ahern, during those two years, allegedly "seduced and sexually abused" him. - The Rev. Robert A. Ward Ward's file documents a lurid past involving cocaine and child pornography. In a June 16, 1999, memo to Bishop William Murphy, the Rev. Charles Higgins wrote that a technician trying to repair Ward's computer stumbled upon some child pornography. Ward denied downloading any such material "recently," but admitted to doing so in the past, and was assessed at a treatment center. The following month, Cardinal Law placed him on health leave, and subsequently removed him as pastor of Whitman's Holy Ghost and banned him from working with youngsters. A memo from a meeting of the archdiocese's sexual abuse review board noted because Ward's misconduct involved downloading child pornography, "there is no victim," and recommended Ward be re-evaluated, resulting in Law's ending his health leave and appointing him development officer for special projects. But last February, the review board got its victim when a man stepped forward to allege Ward molested him in the mid-1970s at the Presentation parish in Brighton, ending his public ministry. Despite a court order demanding the release of all personnel records of accused priests, the archdiocese provided incomplete files on the following two priests: - The Rev. George D. Spagnolia, whose high-profile denial of a child sex charge in March ended when he admitted to having had consensual homosexual relationships with adult men during a 20-year leave of absence, and - Monsignor Frederick J. Ryan, who is alleged to have molested former Catholic Memorial High School sports players Garry M. Garland, David Carney and a third unnamed man. Chris Nilan, a former Boston Bruin and friend to Ryan and the alleged victims, said in a deposition this summer that Ryan admitted to the abuse. The file includes correspondence of Rhode Island police investigating Carney's claim that Ryan took him to the Ocean State, paid to have him tattooed and molested him. In a police interview, Ryan declined to answer any questions about allegations against him. A handwritten note on the Garland charges says "first lawsuit, but not first call," and another memo says "a very well-balanced male parishioner" told of being propositioned by Ryan when hitching a ride from the priest 25 years ago. [Photo Caption: Attorneys Jeffrey Newman, left, and Roderick MacLeish speak to reporters at a press conference yesterday as more priests' files were released, revealing allegations of sexual abuse. Staff photo by Patrick Whittemore.] [Photo Captions: The Rev. Ross Frey; Monsignor Frederick Ryan; The Rev. Alfred Murphy; The Rev. George Spagnolia; The Rev. James F. Power; The Rev. Robert A. Ward]
By Walter V. Robinson, with Charles M. Sennott Cardinal Bernard F. Law and more than five bishops who worked for him have received subpoenas to appear before a state grand jury looking into possible criminal violations by church officials who supervised priests accused of sexually abusing children, according to people with knowledge of the investigation. State troopers from the office of Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly delivered Law's subpoena to his Brighton residence last Friday, the same day that Law left for Washington. A day later, he flew from Washington to Rome. The subpoenas, according to the sources, mark a pivotal phase in a secret, monthslong grand jury investigation convened by Reilly. The grand jury had previously demanded church records. Reilly has said that his criminal investigation continues, even though he and other prosecutors have acknowledged that they have yet to find grounds to bring charges against Law and others alleged to have permitted sexual abusers to remain in positions where they continued to molest minors. In addition to Law, the subpoenas have been issued for Bishop Thomas V. Daily of Brooklyn, N.Y., the nation's fifth-largest Catholic diocese; Bishop John B. McCormack of Manchester, N.H.; Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes of New Orleans; Bishop Robert J. Banks of Green Bay, Wis.; and Bishop William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre, N.Y. At least one additional bishop and several priests who have assisted Law in dealing with the sexual abuse issue have also been subpoenaed, according to the people familiar with the grand jury inquiry. The identities of the other subpoena recipients could not be determined by the Globe last night. In an interview Tuesday, Reilly refused to comment when he was asked whether he had subpoenaed Law. Yesterday, after the Globe learned about the multiple subpoenas, Ann Donlan, Reilly's spokeswoman, would only say that a "comprehensive and active investigation" continues. Reilly declined to be interviewed yesterday, but on Tuesday, he accused the archdiocese of employing "every tool and maneuver" to impede his investigation, despite church officials' public pledges of cooperation. So far, Reilly said, the investigation has gathered evidence of what he called an elaborate and long-running scheme by church officials to cover up the crimes of priests. Timothy P. O'Neill, a lawyer who represents Bishops Daily and Banks, said he could not say whether his clients have received subpoenas. But O'Neill said he thought that Reilly's comments, which were published yesterday by the Globe, were inappropriate. "As a member of the bar, I am astonished that the attorney general would make substantive comments about an ongoing grand jury investigation," O'Neill, himself a former prosecutor, said last night. It could not be determined when Law or any of the others are expected to testify. Although it is uncertain when Law is due to return from Rome, he is scheduled for two days of pretrial depositions, starting next Tuesday, in the civil suit brought by alleged victims of the Rev. Paul R. Shanley. Law's personal attorney, J. Owen Todd, did not return calls. Law himself remained out of view in the Vatican, where he has been since Sunday for meetings with Vatican officials about whether the Archdiocese of Boston should file for bankruptcy and whether he should resign as archbishop of Boston. Law's aides in Boston had no comment on the cardinal's meetings in Rome. As to the grand jury subpoena, testifying under oath about this issue will be nothing new for Law: So far, he has been deposed on 10 days since May 8. But a grand jury appearance presents a different set of challenges for Law, the other bishops, and their lawyers. Daniel I. Small, a former federal prosecutor and now a defense lawyer, said he saw no way for church attorneys to block the appearances by Law and the others. If the grand jury is investigating possible criminal violations by church leaders, Small said, he would usually advise such a client to assert his Fifth Amendment rights and refuse to answer questions. "From a strictly legal point of view, that advice is easy to give, if the client were anyone but Cardinal Law," Small said. "The downside for a cardinal who invokes the Fifth Amendment would be enormous," Small said, noting the public perception of such claims by witnesses. On the other hand, he said, it would be risky for Law to testify and rely on the grand jury process to keep his testimony secret. Prosecutors like Reilly, he said, can issue findings that include the grand jury testimony. Reilly has said that he feels an obligation to report his findings to the public. Reilly has never acknowledged the existence of the grand jury investigation, even after the Globe reported in June that the grand jury had been hearing evidence for several weeks. In April, Reilly said his office had not ruled out bringing criminal charges against the cardinal. Prosecutors have investigated the possibility of indictments charging civil rights violations or conspiracy counts, though neither may apply. The issue most commonly raised is whether Law or the other bishops could be charged as accessories. But legal specialists have said that such a charge would require proof that those to be indicted had intended that the priests under their supervision molest children. And, in most cases, the statute of limitations has long since expired. Reilly's has been a major voice on the clergy sexual abuse scandal from the moment that disclosures began last Jan. 6. When Law apologized for his actions on Jan. 9, he said that all future allegations of abuse would be reported to authorities. Almost immediately, Reilly and several district attorneys publicly demanded that the church report all past allegations of abuse, and Law quickly agreed. Initially, an agreement was struck for the church to voluntarily turn over files. But Reilly and other prosecutors soon complained publicly that the archdiocese was slow to provide the information. One prosecutor, Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating, used grand jury subpoenas to force the handover of documents, according to law enforcement officials. One person who knows about the subpoenas said that several archdiocesan officials, including other bishops, have already testified before the grand jury.
By Fred Bayles Boston - Cardinal Bernard Law and five high-ranking bishops have been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury investigating what Massachusetts' attorney general called a "coverup" of the sexual abuse of children by priests in the Boston Archdiocese. "There was an elaborate scheme to keep it (reports of abuse) away from law enforcement and to keep it quiet," Attorney General Thomas Reilly said Thursday, after a source close to the investigation confirmed the subpoenas. News of the grand jury action came amid growing speculation that Law
may offer to resign as Boston's archbishop. Several reports out of the
Vatican suggested Law may take the step when he meets Pope John Paul II
today. Vatican officials say they expect to issue a statement on the crisis in Boston some time today. Boston Archdiocese officials did not immediately respond to calls. Law has said he sought counsel from Vatican officials in April about resigning, but decided that by staying on as archbishop, he could help institute needed changes. But last week, more documents were released that showed he allowed priests accused of sexual abuse to stay in active ministry during the 1990s. The grand jury subpoenas went out last week to Law and five bishops who worked in the Boston Archdiocese over the past two decades. They include Bishop Thomas Daily of Brooklyn; Bishop John McCormack of Manchester, N.H.; Archbishop Alfred Hughes of New Orleans; Bishop Robert Banks of Green Bay, Wis.; and Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre, N.Y. Law's subpoena was delivered to his residence on Friday. On Thursday, Reilly criticized the lack of cooperation from church officials in providing records. "Things are missing, and things are delayed," he said. Reilly said it was unclear if criminal charges could be brought. "It is very difficult under the current laws of the state to hold a supervisor accountable for actions of others," he said. But Kurt Schwartz, chief of Reilly's criminal bureau, said supervisors and managers couldbe charged as accessories after the fact if it were determined they had knowledge of crime and had not come forward. Law's attorney, J. Owen Todd, said he does not believe the cardinal is a target but simply a witness called to testify. "I think they'll find that what has taken place and has been disclosed and discussed at great length in the civil depositions does not constitute any crime in Massachusetts," Todd said. At least a dozen state and local grand juries have been called to investigate charges against other U.S. dioceses. "This is not unique to Massachusetts," Reilly said. [Photo Captions: Brian Snyder, Reuters; Color, Reuters (page 1A); 'Scheme': Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Reilly discusses on Thursday in Boston the investigation into an alleged scheme by church officials to hide sex abuse.<>Law: In Boston in June. He's currently in Rome.]
By Pam Belluck Boston, December 12 -- The state attorney general today harshly criticized the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, saying church officials had engaged in a cover-up of sex crimes by priests who abused children. In a news conference here, the attorney general, Thomas F. Reilly, said church officials had developed an "elaborate scheme" to keep sexual abuse by priests away from the attention of law enforcement officials. For months, Mr. Reilly and a grand jury have been investigating whether archdiocesan officials can be held criminally liable in the mishandling of the cases of abusive priests. Today a person with knowledge of the investigation said the grand jury had issued subpoenas to Cardinal Bernard F. Law and seven bishops who worked for him. The subpoenas, first reported today by The Boston Globe, were issued last Friday. Those subpoenaed include five men who are now bishops of their own dioceses: Bishop Thomas V. Daily of Brooklyn, Bishop William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre, Bishop Alfred C. Hughes of New Orleans, Bishop Robert J. Banks of Green Bay, Wis., and Bishop John B. McCormack of Manchester, N.H. In his news conference today, Mr. Reilly acknowledged that Massachusetts law made it hard to prosecute church officials for such actions. Prosecutors in Massachusetts face more legal obstacles than do prosecutors in New Hampshire, where on Tuesday Bishop McCormack signed an agreement with the state attorney general acknowledging that the diocese had failed to protect children and that it probably would have been convicted of criminal charges. But in Massachusetts, some of the most relevant laws, relating to conspiracy or to being an accessory to a crime, would require prosecutors to prove that archdiocesan officials intended to commit wrongdoing, not just that they were grossly negligent. Still, Mr. Reilly forcefully criticized the archdiocese today and indicated that his office was seeking every legal avenue that might allow for archdiocesan officials to be prosecuted. "There was an elaborate scheme to keep it away from law enforcement and to keep it quiet," Mr. Reilly said. "The leadership -- and this is a leadership problem, a management problem -- felt it was more important to protect the church than children. And as a result of that, countless numbers of children were harmed." "It certainly is a cover-up," he added. "At the very least you would expect a different approach from a religious institution, and that's not the case here." A spokeswoman for the archdiocese did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment. Mr. Reilly said that despite an agreement by the archdiocese in the spring to provide prosecutors with records and information about how abuse accusations had been handled, investigators had not received everything they had asked for. Kurt Schwartz, chief of the attorney general's criminal bureau, suggested that there might be other legal vehicles for prosecuting church officials. He mentioned laws that say that "a corporate entity can be held criminally responsible for the conduct of its employees" and those that say that managers or supervisors might be "responsible as accessories, particularly accessories after the fact, for certain crimes that are committed by those under their supervision." Mr. Reilly, who is Catholic, spoke more angrily about the archdiocese than he had in the past. He said he was concerned that the archdiocese had not yet implemented recommendations for changes in the church's sexual abuse policy from a commission appointed by Cardinal Law. But most of Mr. Reilly's criticism was aimed at the way the archdiocese had handled accusations of abuse. "We felt an obligation to go forward, particularly given our experience dealing with this institution," Mr. Reilly said. "We've had experience dealing with other institutions against which allegations, serious allegations, had been made. "Our experience in the past is generally they do the right thing when it comes to children. And by doing the right thing I mean they clean house. And they cooperate and they try to work with us to get to the bottom of this and find out the truth. Obviously that has not happened here."
By Michael Rezendes They were loyal bishops helping their cardinal in the gentle handling of sexually abusive priests. And as they fanned out across the country to lead dioceses of their own, some allegedly continued the common practice of the Boston archdiocese: forgiving the accused while concealing their misdeeds. Now, with Law's resignation, survivors of abuse and others who have followed the scandal in the Catholic Church say attention is likely to shift to Law's former deputies and other bishops who have tolerated abuse. "The fear of the Vatican has always been that if Law resigns there would be a domino effect, not only among his auxiliaries but also among other bishops who didn't do what they should have done with abusive priests," said Thomas J. Reese, editor of the Jesuit magazine America. Law himself has said in pretrial testimony that he often relied on subordinates in dealing with priests accused of sexual misconduct. And two of those subordinates have already drawn public anger and the attention of law enforcement authorities for their handling of abusive clerics in Boston and in their own dioceses. Bishop John B. McCormack, a top deputy to Law as recently as 1998, narrowly escaped a criminal indictment of his Manchester, N.H. diocese earlier this week by signing a legal agreement to release thousands of pages of church records on abusive priests. At an emotional news conference yesterday, alleged clergy abuse victims repeatedly called on McCormack to follow Law's lead and resign. "Bishop McCormack, we're coming after you," said Gary Bergeron, an alleged victim of the late Rev. Joseph E. Birmingham, who was reassigned to parish work despite numerous complaints made directly to McCormack. Bishop Thomas V. Daily, a top assistant to Law in the mid-1980s and the leader of the Brooklyn diocese, had to be prodded by law enforcement officials into suspending an accused pastor earlier this year. Daily, 75, has submitted a mandatory retirement letter to Pope John Paul II. And survivors of abuse say that leaders of the nation's largest and second-largest archdioceses - cardinals Roger Mahony of Los Angeles and Edward Egan of New York - are also likely to draw increased scrutiny in the wake of Law's resignation. "If it weren't for the shadow cast by what's been happening in Boston I think there'd be much more heat on Mahony and Egan," said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. In October, Mahony was sharply criticized by a local district attorney for his reluctance to relinquish church documents to a grand jury reviewing evidence of clerical abuse. Egan, meanwhile, has had to defend himself against accusations that he failed to remove sexually abusive clerics while the leader of the Bridgeport diocese. Other, less prominent bishops may also draw increased attention. Earlier this month, Bishop Thomas O'Brien of the Phoenix diocese was singled out by a district attorney who cited evidence that O'Brien advised the families of victims to withhold information about sexual abuse from law enforcement. That could lead to obstruction of justice charges, the prosecutor said. Arizona state law includes clergy among a list of professionals required to report child sexual abuse to civil authorities. Some officials directly involved in managing the clergy crisis do not believe that bishops other than Law are likely to resign any time soon. "The circumstances surrounding Cardinal Law were special. It would be a terrible mistake if people used it as some sort of precedent," said Robert S. Bennett, a prominent attorney and a member of the National Review Board named by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to monitor compliance with their new policy for dealing with sexually abusive priests. But survivors and their attorneys said that if the scandal in Boston appears to be an anomaly, it is only because Boston is the only place where legal action has led to the public disclosure of all church records on priests accused of sexual misconduct. "People view Boston as an aberration because it's only in Boston that a courageous judge and some courageous survivors have persisted to the point where documents have been opened," Clohessy said, referring to orders issued by Superior Court Judge Constance M. Sweeney. "If another judge in another diocese had acted in a similar manner, I think we'd be looking at the same situation elsewhere." The church records aired in Boston - through lawsuits filed against former priest John J. Geoghan and the Rev. Paul R. Shanley - have linked Law and six of his former bishops to the lax supervision of priests who were moved to new parishes after abuse was discovered. A seventh former aide, Bishop John A. D'Arcy of the Fort Wayne-South Bend diocese in Indiana, repeatedly questioned the assignments of troubled priests during his tenure in the Boston archdiocese, the records show. In addition to McCormack and Daily, the bishops associated with Law's oversight of abusive priests include William F. Murphy of the Rockville Centre diocese in New York, Daniel A. Hart of the Norwich, Conn. diocese, Alfred C. Hughes of the New Orleans archdiocese, and Robert J. Banks of the Green Bay, Wis. diocese. Murphy was directly involved in the supervision of defrocked priest Paul J. Mahan before leaving for Rockville Centre last year. He recently handed over church files on abusive priests in his Long Island diocese to a Nassau County grand jury. Hart, a regional bishop under Law before leaving Boston in 1996, was a supervisor of Rev. Anthony J. Rebeiro, a suspended priest accused of sexually assaulting a female parishioner. Hughes, who was named bishop of the Green Bay diocese in 1990, played a role in the oversight of Boston priest James D. Foley, who fathered two children with a woman who later died of a drug overdose. And it was Banks who arranged to tone down an unfavorable psychological evaluation of Geoghan before the pedophile priest was transferred to a Weston parish, despite credible allegations that he had molested several boys. "They were all number twos," said Mitchell Garabedian, an attorney for victims of Geoghan and other abusive priests. "Any leader of the church who had a role in the sexual molestation of innocent children should follow the example of Law and resign." [Photo Captions: 1. Thomas Daily 2. Robert Banks 3. John Mccormack 4. Alfred Hughes 5. William Murphy]
By Jules Crittenden The Vatican is justified in its fears that Bernard Cardinal Law's resignation will have a domino effect, according to those who have closely followed the crisis. "Every bishop is looking over his shoulder tonight," said New Jersey lawyer Stephen Rubino, who has litigated dozens of priest sex-abuse cases. "The laity want their church back. There isn't a diocese that hasn't been touched by this." Thomas Fox, publisher of the National Catholic Reporter, said the momentum has long been building among alienated laity, priests and wealthy donors. Law's resignation tells bishops "you cannot extricate yourself from the depths to which you have sunk when for 20 years you have practiced denial," Fox said. "Law is a station on the railroad tracks, and the train will continue on." The letter by 58 Boston-area priests calling for Law's resignation, considered a major influence on the pope's decision, may embolden other priests. "These ideas move quickly," he said. Fox said he believes the Vatican could derail that train with a "dramatic gesture" such as the mass resignation of the most complicit bishops. But he said, "There is no one in the church with the ability to get a handle on it. Therefore, what we'll see is a slow bleed." High-ranking clerics who may face pressure to resign because of their years of involvement in alleged coverups include: ** Former Boston bishops who played key roles here and in their new dioceses, including Bishop John McCormack of New Hampshire; Bishop Robert J. Banks of Green Bay, Wis.; Archbishop Alfred Hughes of New Orleans; Bishop William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre, N.Y.; and Bishop Thomas V. Daily of Brooklyn, N.Y. ** Edward Cardinal Egan of New York; Roger Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles; Theodore Cardinal McCarrick of Washington, D.C.; Bishop Anthony Pilla of Cleveland, Ohio; Bishop James Kinney of St. Cloud, Minn.; and others. A statement yesterday by the Catholic League, attacking survivors' groups, their lawyers and prosecutors, disputed the idea of a domino effect, saying, "Some are already beating the war drums going after bishops of other dioceses. This is absurd: everyone knows that no other diocese in the nation was qualitatively or quantitatively comparable to Boston. To suggest otherwise is to play into the hands of Fifth-Column Catholics." Jason Berry, who wrote "Lead Us Not Into Temptation," about the first public priest-pedophilia crisis in Louisiana in the 1980s, said he doubts that many bishops will face the confluence of pressures that Law faced here in Boston - a heavily Catholic, highly educated area with an activist laity and priests, fueled by aggressive newspapers and a large number of lawsuits. "I don't think there is nearly the volume of intensity elsewhere that you find in Boston," said Berry, who suggested that many tainted bishops might be able to hang on. "Cleveland is not Boston. New Orleans is not Boston." But Berry said, "The dike has broken. The real question is, how aggressive will prosecutors and grand juries be in other jurisdictions?" Jeffrey R. Anderson, a Minnesota lawyer who has litigated priest cases for 20 years, said of Boston, "It isn't anomalous. It just happened first. What happened today foreshadows what will happen in many other places before too long." Rubino said, "I've gotten calls from at least 15 prosecutors from around the country in the last two weeks. They all want to know where you find the documents. My sense is there is huge momentum." [Photo Captions: ON THE SPOT: Bishop William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre, N.Y., above left, and Bishop Robert J. Banks of Green Bay, Wis. - with Cardinal Bernard Law in 1988 - as well as Bishop John McCormack of New Hampshire, below, all may face pressure to resign. AP FILE PHOTOS.]
By Laurie Goodstein Last April, when the nation's Roman Catholic cardinals traveled to Rome and brought home a statement from Pope John Paul II condemning the sexual abuse of minors by priests, some church leaders expected that his words would calm the growing anger among the church's laypeople. Last June in Dallas, where American bishops passed a manifesto committing themselves to remove any priest who had ever sexually abused a minor, church officials again expressed optimism that their efforts would restore faith and quell the restiveness among the laity. Now that the scandal has resulted in the downfall of the nation's senior prelate, Cardinal Bernard F. Law of Boston, the bishops recognize that the crisis may only grow as laypeople and priests, lawyers and judges, see the power they can have. Prosecutors and grand juries are investigating priests and dioceses from Los Angeles to Long Island. Victims are stepping forward, demanding face-to-face meetings with their bishops and filing lawsuits asking for millions of dollars in damages. Priests tell their bishops they feel betrayed and demoralized. And laypeople across the theological spectrum are openly challenging the hierarchy, saying that Cardinal Law is only one of several bishops who have protected sexually abusive priests and deserve to be toppled. "I don't think it ameliorates them at all," said Paul F. Lakeland, a professor of religious studies at Fairfield University in Connecticut, said of the laity. "It will embolden them, and I think that's one of the reasons the Vatican has taken so long to do this. It surely has to be aware of the potential consequences. They set a precedent here, and some people will read this as, if you make enough noise about someone against whom there are legitimate charges, eventually he will go." Bishops have resigned before in disgrace, after being exposed as philanderers, pedophiles or thieves. Bishops have been unseated for heresy, after openly repudiating church doctrine on such things as papal infallibility or birth control. But church experts say they cannot recall another instance in which a bishop resigned after a virtual revolt from his parishioners and his priests. At the cathedral in Boston last Sunday, the number of protesters outside rivaled those attending Mass. Priests, who are normally loath to publicly rebuke their bishops, had become defiant. Fifty-eight priests in the Boston archdiocese, some known as Cardinal Law's loyalists, signed a letter asking him to step down. In the end, said Prof. Alberto Monticone, a Vatican historian associated with La Sapienza, the state university of Rome, Vatican officials recognized that keeping Cardinal Law in Boston was a greater liability than losing him. "The church is looking over its interests: the people of the United States, the people of the church, but also the image of the church," Professor Monticone said. "The risk would have been not to have done anything. Certainly it's a wound -- this is a relevant person -- but it's a necessary wound." For months, the Vatican resisted calls from laypeople in Boston and elsewhere for Cardinal Law's resignation. "They don't take action just because people get upset and angry," said the Rev. Robert J. Silva, president of the National Federation of Priests' Councils. "In the Catholic community, the people do not choose their own bishops. So I'm sure that the question of Cardinal Law's resignation has been weighed, and weighed very carefully by the Holy Father." Church experts said that some in the Vatican feared a domino effect: that Cardinal Law's resignation would prompt the downfall of other bishops who had served as his deputies in Boston, and whose names were also on those documents transferring or forgiving abusive priests. Five other bishops, former associates of Cardinal Law who once worked in Boston and were eventually promoted to their own dioceses on his recommendation, have now been subpoenaed to testify by a grand jury in Massachusetts. The five are Bishops Thomas V. Daily of Brooklyn; William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre, which covers Long Island; Alfred C. Hughes of New Orleans; Robert J. Banks of Green Bay, Wis.; and John B. McCormack of Manchester, N.H. "I think we're seeing just the beginning of serious interest by the government in criminal investigations," said Seth T. Taube, a lawyer with the firm McCarter and English in Newark who has defended the church in abuse claims. Grand juries are investigating the church in at least nine states, Arizona, California, Maryland, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and South Carolina, as well as Massachusetts. Lawyers in California are preparing hundreds of civil suits to file against the church beginning Jan. 1, when a new state law goes into effect that drops the statute of limitations that had prevented accusers in sexual abuse cases from suing the church. "We're seeing more suits from longer periods ago than we have ever seen before," said Mr. Taube. "We're going to get to the day when decisions are going to have to be made about whether the church's resources should go to paying victims or ministering to the needy." Said one church official who did not want to be identified, "You've got the whole California matter coming up now, so it's just hard to expect that it's going to quiet down." Archbishop John J. Myers of Newark said, "We realize that this did not develop overnight, so I don't think it will be healed overnight, especially in places where the confusion and the problems have been greater." Archbishop Myers, who faces questions about his own handling of sexual abuse cases in his previous diocese, Peoria, Ill, added: "There will be a certain release of tension and stress because of this decision which the Holy Father and Cardinal Law made, at least for a while. But people need to be healed, and relationships need to be healed." But the main reason the crisis is not over is that victims of abusive priests, who once masked their identity in television interviews, have just begun to have the confidence to step into the spotlight and demand change. David Cerulli, a spokesman in New York for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said his group's focus would now shift to bringing pressure on two of Cardinal Law's deputies, Bishops Daily and Murphy. "Victims must continue to find the courage to come forward," Mr. Cerulli said. "This is what created the justified outrage of the public and prosecutors which ultimately led to the resignation of Cardinal Law. One important point to remember, however, is that Cardinal Law is only one part of a much deeper problem: a secretive and insensitive hierarchy. His removal does nothing to fundamentally change how bishops treat victims." Victims' advocates maintain that church documents in other dioceses, if unsealed by a court order, would show the same pattern of concealment as in Boston. "This is not over -- this is a beginning," said A. W. Richard Sipe, a former Benedictine monk and the author of several books on priests and sexuality, who has been an expert witness in church abuse cases. "Law officers and D.A.'s around the country all say the same thing, that the church is fighting the examination of documents tooth and nail. You can change the players, but the system is the same. It's just too big for one, or even a dozen resignations to change." CORRECTION-DATE: [Photo Caption: In Boston after Cardinal Bernard F. Law stepped down, Sister Marie LaBollita embraced Edward Bergeron, who says a priest molested him in the 1970's. Calls from accusers and the clergy led to the resignation. (C. J. Gunther for The New York Times)]
St. Louis Post-Dispatch http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/special/probpriests.nsf/0/EB7798C78B24DDF886256C9100264D67?OpenDocument Now that the most senior U.S. Roman Catholic cardinal has been forced to resign as head of the Boston Archdiocese, there are two circles of other bishops who experts believe might be forced to follow. The following men are former Boston Archdiocesan auxiliary bishops who either made their own decisions about assigning known abusive priests to new parishes or did so at Law's request: Bishop John B. McCormack, now of Manchester, N.H. Unconnected to the actions in Boston, Catholic scholars and activists said the following bishops also may be pressured to resign because of their mismanagement of known sexual abusers in their own dioceses: Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles.
By Joseph Mallia and Rita Ciolli http://www.poynter.org/dg.lts/id.46/aid.13898/column.htm The resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law and the widening criminal investigation in Boston has shifted the church sex scandal spotlight to the role of his deputies, including Long Island Bishop William Murphy. Murphy, leader of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, served as the second-in-command to Law for more than seven years before coming here in September 2001. He is expected to testify soon before a Massachusetts grand jury investigating why Boston church leaders failed for decades to report priests who had been accused of sexually abusing children to civil authorities. Also subpoenaed to testify are other former Law deputies, including Bishop Thomas Daily of Brooklyn, Bishop John McCormack of Manchester, N.H., Archbishop Alfred Hughes of New Orleans and Bishop Robert Banks of Green Bay, Wis.
By John Rather It has been a rough start for Bishop William F. Murphy, the spiritual leader of Long Island's 1.5 million Roman Catholics. His first full year as head of the Diocese of Rockville Centre has been dogged by accusations that he indulged himself at the diocese's expense in the construction of a new official residence. He has also had to deal with local reaction from the sex abuse scandal sweeping the American church, including a new grass-roots group challenging the diocesan hierarchy to be more open. But the worst of the storm may still be ahead. Still at issue, in the courts of law and of public opinion, is whether the 62-year-old bishop took part in shielding priests who sexually abused children during his years as a top official in the Archdiocese of Boston, where Cardinal Bernard F. Law resigned as archbishop earlier this month and asked forgiveness for allowing pedophile priests to remain in active ministries. As attention shifts from the cardinal to his former and current lieutenants in Boston, documents that Massachusetts courts have allowed to be released are beginning to detail the role Bishop Murphy took in these cases as the second-highest official in the archdiocese for much of the 1990's. Lawyers and others familiar with documents released from the Boston investigation have said that Bishop Murphy's name appears less often in them than the names of other top advisers to Cardinal Law. But that could change as more documents are released. Bishop Murphy has steadfastly declined to publicly discuss his time in Boston. Joanne Novarro, a spokeswoman for the Rockville Centre diocese, said it would be inappropriate for him to comment on his tenure in Boston because he is currently under subpoena to appear before a grand jury there on Feb. 12. The Massachusetts attorney general, Thomas Reilly, convened the panel to look into charges of sexual abuse of children by priests in the Boston archdiocese and what Mr. Reilly characterized as a cover-up by archdiocesan officials. Bishop Murphy was one of seven current and former bishops called to testify. Bishop Murphy was vicar general and moderator of the curia -- the No. 2 post in the Boston archdiocese -- from 1993 until 2001, when Pope John Paul II named him to the Long Island post. From 1987 to 1993 he was secretary of community relations for the archdiocese. Bishop Murphy's silence on his tenure in Boston has not helped him with Long Island Catholics. "The bishop would certainly improve his relationship with the people in the diocese by being very open about his past in Boston and about the present here in the Diocese of Rockville Centre," said Sheila Peiffer of Southampton, the co-director of Long Island Voice of the Faithful, the local chapter of the group of Catholic laity disenchanted with the church's handling of the sex scandal. Since coming to Rockville Centre, Bishop Murphy has formulated new policies on abusive priests, has removed several priests facing credible allegations of abuse and has turned over church records of an unspecified number of abuse cases to the district attorneys in Nassau and Suffolk. Rick Hinshaw, a spokesman for the Nassau district attorney, said that a seven-month investigation found no allegations of sex abuse during Bishop Murphy's tenure. Other allegations involved incidents that happened too long ago to be prosecuted, he said.. But in Suffolk, a special grand jury convened to probe abuse and cover-ups in the diocese recently received additional time to gather testimony. The panel, which began meeting in May, now has until Feb. 28 to complete its work. Meanwhile, Bishop Murphy continues to face criticism locally for creating a 5,000-square-foot official bishop's residence out of a former convent adjacent to St. Agnes Cathedral in Rockville Centre. The diocese said the renovations cost about $800,000, or about $300,000 more than expected, plus an additional $120,000 for furniture and appliances. The Newsday columnist Jimmy Breslin has called the residence Mansion Murphy and has taken the bishop to task for displacing the Dominican nuns who had been living there. The diocese has defended the renovation and furnishings as necessary to provide space for church offices, meetings and events. "Unfortunately people's perception of the residence is very much fueled by Breslin, and he has been very inaccurate," Ms. Novarro said. Mr. Breslin did not immediately respond to a message left at his office in Queens, seeking comment, on Wednesday. Dixie Scovel, Newsday's director of public affairs, said: "Jimmy Breslin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and his work speaks for itself. It probably should be pointed out, however, that Bishop Murphy has apologized for the costs." Ms. Novarro said pledges to the bishop's appeal this year were $14.7 million, almost reaching the $15 million goal set by Bishop Murphy, an increase of $3 million from 2001. The Long Island Voice of the Faithful is accepting donations for a charitable fund that will detail how money is used. Bishop Murphy has barred the group from meeting on church property. In an interview published on Sept. 18 in The Long Island Catholic, the diocesan newspaper, he said he saw no need for the group and believed allowing meetings on church property gave it an official standing it did not deserve.
By Carol Eisenberg http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uscath1222,0,7812827.story "We never even questioned it,” said Zirkel, 71, a retired academic and lay Catholic chaplain at Nassau Community College. "As long as we've lived here, we've always supported the church and its good works.” No more. A few weeks ago, Zirkel gathered together all his remaining envelopes for the Sunday collection basket and mailed them to Bishop William Murphy. Across the top of the pile, he scrawled in large block letters: "No Voice, No Money.” "The bishop has lost my trust,” Zirkel said. "Unless I see an independent audit of where our money goes, I will not give the diocese anything.” Even as the Roman Catholic Church in America struggles to rebuild its moral authority after a year of devastating revelations of priest sex abuse, another crisis is looming: the financial fallout of 11 months of scandals. And that is tied not just to the cost of hundreds of lawsuits, but to a crisis of confidence among tens of thousands of pew sitters such as Zirkel, who have stopped supporting diocesan fund-raising drives. Even some big donors say they are withholding money until they see full financial reports, including an accounting of the scandal's costs. "I call it the perfect moral storm,” said A.W. Richard Sipe, a former Benedictine monk turned psychotherapist who wrote the book "Sex, Priests and Power: Anatomy of a Crisis.” "The shock at the priest sex abuse scandals, the financial fallout from the suits and the loss of credibility in authority are all coming together in one powerful moment.” And the power of that storm grows by the day. The Boston archdiocese is weighing the unprecedented step of filing for bankruptcy to avoid litigating suits by almost 500 alleged victims of sex abuse. California's bishops are warning of an avalanche of lawsuits next year as a result of a new state law lifting the statute of limitations for one year, which may jeopardize funding for church schools, parishes and charities. Steep cuts in social programs already have been made in Boston, and are being contemplated elsewhere, including Rockville Centre, as the ripple effects of the scandals expand. "The financial viability of the Catholic Church in the U.S. is at risk, particularly in archdioceses like Boston and Los Angeles,” said R. Scott Appleby, a scholar of American Catholic history at the University of Notre Dame. "Three hundred priests may be a small fraction of the number of priests in America, but they can generate an awful lot of lawsuits. So the problem is not going to go away.” The fact that the scandal comes at a time of economic slowdown and an unforgiving stock market only intensifies the potential impact on the church's vast network of health and human services. "We are deeply concerned about the ability of Catholic Charities agencies to meet a greater need for assistance when donations are down,” the Rev. J. Bryan Hehir, president of Catholic Charities USA, said recently. Hehir cited the national economic downturn as the major reason for the drop, although he said the ramifications of the scandals and last year's terrorist attacks also played a role. Others believe anger over the scandals is playing a more significant part. A nationwide Gallup poll released Wednesday found that four out of 10 Catholics say they are contributing less money to the church because of the scandal. Catholics also are attending church less often -- a trend that preceded the scandal, but which intensified over the course of this year, according to the telephone poll of 1,009 adults done in early December. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 7 percentage points. "This is a time bomb,” said Charles Zech, an economist at Villanova University who has studied Catholic giving. "Folks are upset about the lack of accountability and transparency in church finances. They've been giving their money in good faith and finding out that it's been used for under-the-table settlements. And the longer this goes on, the angrier people are becoming. The bishops, I don't think, fully appreciate that fact.” Francis Butler, director of a consortium of Catholic donors called Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities Inc., called the Gallup results "startling.” "There's just a groundswell of anger that's driving all this,” Butler said. Earlier this year, his group found almost one in five Catholics who attend Mass weekly had stopped supporting diocesan appeals. To restore trust, the group urged bishops to give a full accounting of the scandal's costs -- but has had only limited success. "Baltimore has done it,” Butler said. "And Belleville has done it. But most have not.” None of the three New York-area prelates have released such figures. Murphy has reassured parishioners that their donations to Sunday collections and annual appeals are not being used for settlements. Rather, he said, claims have been paid through an emergency fund set up for "uninsured perils” by the late Bishop John McGann. But diocesan sources told Newsday that that fund, established to cover such things as sexual abuse lawsuits and asbestos removal, was created about 10 years ago with an annual $3,000 assessment on every parish -- which came from parishioners' contributions or parish reserves. The sources said the fund has paid out about $2.5 million related to sex abuse claims, including settlements to victims and the cost of counseling and treatment for victims as well as priest offenders. Diocesan spokeswoman Joanne Novarro declined to comment on the fund. Meanwhile, victims' advocates say the costs are likely to increase as more victims are emboldened to come forward. Nationwide, plaintiffs' attorneys estimate that the price tag of sex abuse settlements, many of them secret, already has exceeded $1 billion since the first publicized case in Louisiana in 1985. "The dam is broken now,” said Sylvia Demerest, a plaintiffs' attorney in Dallas who helped win a $120-million jury award in 1997. "Obviously this thing is going to go on and on and on.” Church officials dismiss the $1-billion estimate as exaggerated, but concede that unrelenting media attention and high-profile investigations by state and local prosecutors have emboldened plaintiffs' attorneys as well as victims. And with inadequate or in some cases exhausted insurance coverage, some are predicting that hard-hit dioceses may be forced to sell land and other assets to pay claims -- as did Dallas, Santa Fe, N.M., and Santa Rosa, Calif., in the late 1990s. As Boston was the epicenter of the abuse scandal, so, inevitably, it has become ground zero for financial repercussions. The archdiocese has had to cut its $25-million operating budget by a third, hurting poorer parishes and many church programs. Its banks are cutting credit; its insurers are balking at paying settlements. "We're seeing a whole new class of victims of the scandal -- poor children, who are being hurt by cuts to inner city schools and food programs,” said the Rev. Robert Bullock, pastor of a church in Sharon, Mass. "This is a serious crisis and it's putting a lot of the ministry of the church in very serious danger.” Though New York has not been hit anywhere near as hard by lawsuits, in large part because of its narrowly drawn statute of limitations, local dioceses may face increasing liability as aggressive prosecutors as well as plaintiffs' attorneys search for ways around the strict timetables for civil and criminal prosecutions. Moreover, while annual fund-raising drives for all three New York-area dioceses went well this year, their launches predated many of the worst revelations. While some priests say Sunday collections are down, there are no diocese-wide figures available. In a September interview, Murphy said, "My priests tell me that their Sunday collections, which are the major things, are holding steady.” Since then, however, some parishioners say they've been demoralized by reports about him as well as Bishop Thomas Daily of Brooklyn, who both served as top aides to Boston Cardinal Bernard Law. Law himself resigned as archbishop earlier this month. "I will not contribute one penny of my hard-earned money to Bishop Daily, who protected all those abusive priests in Boston,” said Maureen Lally, 50, a software consultant from Park Slope, who said she has redirected the money she used to put in the Sunday collection basket to Voice of the Faithful, a lay group seeking a greater role in church governance. Some Long Island Catholics say they also are suspicious of Murphy, since he was Law's top deputy from 1993 until he came here in 2001. "Let's put it this way,” said Philip Megna, 59, an attorney from Fort Salonga who considers himself a devout Catholic. "Bishop Murphy is the protege of a cardinal who has proven his dishonesty.” Sources in the Diocese of Rockville Centre say that contingency plans are being made to deal with significant reductions anticipated in next year's drive -- which is likely to coincide with a report from the Suffolk County grand jury investigation into the protection of abusive priests on Long Island. Several priests said they have told the bishop that parishioners have warned that they won't support his appeal next year. "They are very faithful people who are disheartened by their perception of the financial mismanagement related to the sexual abuse crisis,” said the Rev. Gerald Twomey, co-pastor at St. Anne's Church in Brentwood, who said his parish collections are down about 11 percent. "The issue is really one of trust and confidence that has rocked the church since the revelations about John Geoghan last January.” Without becoming completely open about its finances, Twomey said he doesn't know how the bishop can regain the trust of such people. Church officials acknowledge there is currently little financial oversight of dioceses. Unlike other nonprofit groups, for instance, dioceses are not required to report to the Internal Revenue Service because of their First Amendment protection as religious institutions. And though bishops are required to report to a diocesan finance council made up of lay people and to give a state-of-the-diocese report to the Vatican every five years, "they're not required to give minute details” and the reports are not public, Butler said. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has guidelines for financial management, "but dioceses are not required to follow them and many do not,” he said. Kenneth Korotky, chief financial officer for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, did not dispute that characterization. "As this whole scandal has illustrated, each diocese stands alone under canon law and each bishop reports only to the pope,” Korotky said. Critics say it is not surprising, therefore, that former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland was able to make a confidential $450,000 payment in 1998 to a man who accused him of sexually abusing him more than two decades ago, or that former Santa Rosa, Calif., Bishop G. Patrick Ziemann was able to hide $16 million in losses from bad investments and undisclosed payments to settle sexual misconduct claims. In the New York metropolitan area, Brooklyn is the only diocese that publishes an audited financial statement in its diocesan newspaper, The Tablet. "We have not released financial statements and I do not know of any plans to do so,” said Joseph Zwilling, spokesman for Cardinal Edward Egan of the Archdiocese of New York. Rockville Centre stopped publishing financial statements a few years ago, but the bishop's finance council planned to discuss possible changes to the practice, according to Novarro. Asked who the finance council members are and when they would decide, she replied: "We're not releasing the names. They're five people who have volunteered their time. We don't want them to be hounded by the media. We will release the information we should release when we're ready to release it and not before.” In the current climate, such statements are red flags for many parishioners. "It was easier when everyone sat in the pew and said, ‘yes father, no father,'” said Megna, the attorney from Fort Salonga. "But they educated us very well. Now everyone says, ‘why?' or, ‘no, you can't do that.'” Megna said he no longer will give anything to the diocese until he gets a full accounting. "I'm anxious to give what I used to give, if not more,” he said. "But I won't until such time as I know where my money is going.”
Jimmy Breslin http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/columnists/ny-nybresvr3067415dec31,0,1798346.column Beautiful. I was taken by surprise by the news of Cardinal Egan's immaculate acquittal. It was in Chicago. I never knew there was anything going on in Chicago, and he certainly had that hidden. Suddenly, his flack released the story of his being exonerated in Chicago. To be fair, I have been advised by my friend, attorney Michael Dowd, that the matter in Chicago was caused by a complete fraud. The acquittal still came out of nowhere. I never heard of the charges. In looking back at the year in religion, this would be part of the general revelry tonight if I took a drink. This is a shame, because I used to have a million drinks over exciting news. And all this past year, the Catholic church has been the most exciting news of all. Egan's press release sure was different from the day in spring when Egan finished a library dedication at the College of New Rochelle and, seeing all the reporters and cameras there to ask about a deposition in Bridgeport, went out the back door. Then he began to lope. Here he went, brushing that hair out of his eyes, and after him came the flotilla of cameras and reporters. I never had seen such a sight before in my life, the cardinal of New York running from news people as if we all were leaving the federal court in Brooklyn. He got in the car and was whisked away. I read of Egan's new report while I was catching up with the attempted attack on me by various people working for the Catholic church, of which we all know now what that is. Oh, they are looking to wound me. They think I'm naked before my enemies. I cannot write about the Catholic church every time out because I am supposed to be broader. Then when I don't write about them, they attack. Usually they are collar Catholics or payroll Catholics. This time, one was unique. The district attorney of Nassau County, Denis Dillon, wrote a letter to Newsday saying that of course I was wrong about his bishop, Mansion Murphy. I don't know why Dillon is mad at me. I don't even live in his district. But his bishop is a different story. He's national. Dillon supports him. Their friends go around saying that Breslin should be fired. That is some public servant, Dillon; he goes around in place of doing the people's work and backbites in the name of a church. Slips around in some strange fringe organization, Opus Dei, which sounds like soapsuds but is not nearly as useful. He has been around since 1974. For the new year, I am buying him vestments, and they will be needed because I am going to Rome and I am going to have the name officially changed to the Divine Denis. Or some would make it Denis the Divine. Either way, he can wear the vestments. The reception will be here in Mansion Murphy's apartment with 50 bottles of wine, properly cooled. He threw nuns out and the diocese spent - what, $5 million? - to make over the place, including creating personal living quarters out of the top floor of the huge, great former convent. He could have put about three dozen apartments in there for people to live, but he wants to be alone. Murphy has been even more concerned about his elegant new quarters lately. When I happened to be there one day, I saw at the rear of his mansion some cardboard boxes that had been used for shipping something gaudy to his house. I made note of it here. Upon reading this, Mansion Murphy told somebody I know who works for him that there was a big shipment of china and glasses for his dinner parties coming and he didn't want it delivered directly to the mansion. He said this was because Breslin goes through his garbage. Murphy had the boxes delivered to the Diocese of Rockville Centre offices and from there they were taken over to his new residence by car, a few boxes at a time. Murphy is what is known as a running story and he will be covered as such. He came out of Boston with Thomas Daily, another beauty, who is in Brooklyn as bishop, and this fellow McCormack, who is the bishop of New Hampshire. The other day, McCormack said that a priest, Roland P. Cote, who had been caught paying for sex with a young man, was pretty much all right because he had done so outside the diocese boundary. Above anything that has happened this year, I cannot understand a bishop allowing somebody to spend money outside the district.
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