A John Paul II Pedophile Priest recently died, but the memories of living hell he left behind doesn't die

Read our latest posts in the Benedict XVI - Ratzinger: God's Rottweiler: Benedict XVI has no power 'to heal' victims of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army & has no power to command God-to-become flesh in the Mass http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2009/12/benedict-xvi-has-no-power-to-heal.html

Benedict XVI angers Jewish groups for declaring “Venerable” Pius XII who did nothing during Holocaust… like John Paul II did nothing for clergy abuse http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2009/12/benedict-xvi-angers-jewish-groups-for.html

Cold-blooded Benedict XVI is knocked down at Vatican procession for Christmas Mass, so? he knocked down 12,000 American victims of priest-pedophilia http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2009/12/cold-blooded-benedict-xvi-is-knocked.html

The John Paul II Millstone -- John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army expands into Ireland &John Paul is elevated as "Venerable"... only in the Catholic Church are criminals glorified http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2009/12/john-paul-ii-pedophile-priests-army.html


A John Paul II Pedophile Priest recently died, but the memories of living hell he left behind doesn't die

Matthew 18:6

A former student at Holy Name of Jesus Church in Stratford asks her classmates if they suspected anything was wrong with Father Raymond Pcolka
Comments (3)

Thursday, December 31, 2009
By Erin Holroyd

http://www.fairfieldweekly.com/article.cfm?aid=16056


Holy Name of Jesus Church, where Raymond Pcolka once lived and worked as a priest

But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. — Matthew 18:6


Raymond Pcolka died of a combination of liver failure, cirrhosis and hepatitis C on Nov. 22 at the Glen River Nursing Home in Southbury. He was 70. There was no obituary, no known calling hours. Unless you'd been following developments in the Catholic church sex abuse scandal, you would have no reason to know Pcolka's name. And even some who were following it missed the "news" of his death.

For those of us who knew him, it meant closure; he was no longer out there, somewhere.

The crimes Pcolka perpetrated against children during his 11 years as associate pastor at the Holy Name of Jesus Church in Stratford were unforgivable. According to court papers released last month, he raped them, sodomized them and had them urinate on him as he laughed in bed.

Pcolka was one of the seven pedophile priests at the heart of a massive lawsuit which, in March 2001, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport settled for an undisclosed amount. The Hartford Courant later discovered that now-New York Cardinal Edward Egan, while he was bishop in Bridgeport from 1988 to 2000, allowed several priests accused of sexual abuse to continue working. So did Walter Curtis, who was bishop from 1961 until 1988. In most cases, the bishops moved the priests around from parish to parish.

In Pcolka's case, most of the moving was done in the 10 years after he was ordained. He started at St. Benedict's Church in Stamford, where a complaint was made of him fondling an altar boy, and hopped around to several other Fairfield County churches and Catholic schools until settling at Holy Name of Jesus in 1975.

*

Three years later, following a troublesome stretch in public school for me and my brother, a family friend convinced my parents to cart us off to the school at Holy Name of Jesus. I had no idea what I was in for.

Early in my Catholic school career, it became clear I was not cut out for such a strict environment. The nuns realized this as well. I was regularly sent to the rectory for punishment. This is where I first had the misfortune of spending time with Raymond Pcolka. He disliked me instantly. Who knew my charm-free demeanor would serve me so well?

Soon after my brother and I were sentenced to Holy Name, my parents divorced. Pcolka informed my mother, during Sunday mass, that she was no longer welcome in church. The abandonment of her husband made her an "unwanted" of the parish. Furious that whatever shred of faith my mother may have had left was ripped away, while she was humiliated in public, I came to hate Raymond Pcolka and avoided him at all cost.

*

When I recently read of the release of the long-sealed documents surrounding Pcolka's abuse cases, I reached out to my former Holy Name schoolmates to see how they felt.

Much to my surprise, my brother was the first to respond. He recounted a story of his tenth birthday. After serving mass, Pcolka chased him around the sacristy, grabbed him and pulled him over his knee under the guise of birthday spankings. My brother said at some point Pcolka must have thought better of it and let him go. "I can still remember how strong he was."

The other responses ranged from "I pray he burns in hell" to "I'd hoped I'd never hear of him again" to "Why didn't he ever go to jail?" (He was relieved of all priestly duties in 1993, spent some years in a psychiatric facility and was defrocked in 2004.)

One friend, classmate and former altar boy — who we'll call James — sent me an interesting e-mail outlining what we now recognize as the manipulations of a master. "He was cool, different, not like the stodgy priests and nuns we were accustomed to," wrote James. "There was something about him, at least to me, that you wanted him to like you. If he didn't, he wouldn't have been such a successful abuser."

James explained that the altar boys had a pecking order determined by Pcolka's affection. Some of the boys he was indifferent to, some he liked and the coolest and luckiest accompanied Pcolka to his cabin in New Hampshire and on day trips.

"After a few years of grooming, this sense of being his pal and confidant, he would shun you," wrote James. This left James feeling confused, that maybe he had done something wrong. He didn't like being treated with the same indifference as the non-cool kids. "It makes me sad to think of our friends who were fatherless, who looked at him as a father. What choice did they have?"

Eventually James quit the altar boys. Pcolka approached him. "He told me he was upset and assured me that it wasn't me, it was him. He told me that I was special, different and the last thing he said, I can still hear it, as I walked out of the sacristy, was that he loved me. In retrospect, it surely seems fucked up that an adult would have such a conversation with a 12-year-old."

James got off unharmed. Many of our friends did not.

My own experiences with Pcolka ended abruptly. After school one afternoon, a friend and I came upon Pcolka and a student — one who was then privy to Pcolka's special treatment, and who would later sue for abuse — unloading apples from the trunk of his car. As we passed by, Pcolka asked if we thought we were too good to speak to our parish priest.

My friend responded, "No, Father."

Pcokla then asked me if I thought I was too good for him.

I said, "No."

He said, "No, what?"

I said, "No, I don't."

He became enraged and grabbed me by both arms and shook me. He said I was an ungrateful, blasphemous child. Just as this occurred, another parish priest threw the door open and insisted I be released. I ran home.

The following Monday, I was told he expected an apology and sent to the rectory. I could hear thumping and voices from the room. I knocked and the room behind the door fell silent. After a moment the door opened a crack. "What do you want?" Pcolka yelled at me. I explained myself, and as I did, a classmate of mine squeezed out of the small opening and ran. I can close my eyes and see the look on his face as he ran by. Shame and gratitude.

We stood there in silence. I had no idea what had just happened. Pcolka was white as a sheet and shut the door in my face. Later I overheard him tell my principal that I was never to be sent to him again, that the principal was responsible for the discipline of the kids and if she couldn't handle it she could be replaced.

I consider myself lucky, as do James and my brother. In a place we were to be taught to be good Christians, we learned mostly of evil.

I think I can speak for my classmates he did not abuse to the ones he did, and say we are sorry. We are sorry something so horrific and cruel happened and we didn't know. We are sorry that a church designed to protect and inspire you robbed you of protection and inspiration. We are hopeful that you have found peace in your lives. We have not forgotten what you have endured, and we respect the courage you exhibited by putting the abuse to an end. For that, we owe you a debt of gratitude.
Comments (3)
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I don't know of a single survivor of childhood sexual victimization by Roman Catholic clergy who, upon learning of the death of the ordained/anointed priest, brother, nun, or bishop, etc. who so brutally harmed them, did not send away for the perverted clergy's death certificate. I certainly did. Why? I HAD To Know That The MONSTER Was Really, Truly Dead.
Posted by Victoria Martin on 12.29.09 at 11.22

I recall that the Irish pastor from Galway, a successor to a deceased serially abusive Irish American pastor, when asked about that priest stated "Me mother told me never to speak ill of the dead."

Thank God that some people have the courage to speak the truth, more courage than many of the clergy it seems.

Posted by Greg Bullough on 12.29.09 at 12.38
There's an old standup joke depicting Bette Davis speaking about Joan Crawford that would certainly fit here. Paraphrasing: "You should only speak good about the dead.....Pervert Child Molesting Priests.....They're Dead.....Good!!!!"
Posted by Julia Anderson on 12.29.09 at 14.04

John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army expands into Ireland

As Benedict XVI raises John Paul II as "Venerable", the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army expands from USA into Ireland.

Read our article in the John Paul II MIllstone: John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army expands into Ireland & John Paul is elevated as "Venerable"... only in the Catholic Church are criminals glorified http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2009/12/john-paul-ii-pedophile-priests-army.html


Dublin diocese report - at a glance

The Report of the Commission of Investigation into the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin was set up in 2006 to investigate how Church and state authorities handled allegations of child abuse against 46 priests over a period from 1975 to 2004.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/8381433.stm

The full report can be read at www.justice.ie


• One priest admitted to sexually abusing over 100 children, while another accepted that he had abused on a fortnightly basis throughout his 25-year ministry.

• The Commission examined complaints in respect of over 320 children against 46 priests. Substantially more of the complaints relate to boys - the ratio is 2.3 boys to one girl.

• Of the 46 priests examined, 11 pleaded guilty to or were convicted in the criminal courts of sexual assaults on children.

• There was one clear case of a false accusation of child sexual abuse.

• The report found Dublin Archdiocese's pre-occupations in dealing with cases of child sexual abuse, at least until the mid 1990s, were the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church, and the preservation of its assets. All other considerations, including the welfare of children and justice for victims, were subordinated to these priorities.

• All the Archbishops of Dublin in the period covered by the Commission were aware of some complaints.

• The Church authorities failed to implement most of their own canon law rules on dealing with clerical child sexual abuse. This was in spite of the fact that a number of them were qualified canon and civil lawyers.

• A mother who contacted the Archdiocese to report that her daughter had been abused as a child was told that the daughter would have to make the complaint. When the mother made it clear that the daughter was unlikely to be able to make such a complaint, she was not even asked for the name of the priest.

• A number of very senior members of the Irish police regarded priests as being outside their remit. There are some examples of them actually reporting complaints to the Archdiocese instead of investigating them.

• The Church did not start to report complaints of child sexual abuse to the Irish police until late 1995

John Paul II pedophile priests abuses led to suicides

Please read our latest posts in the John Paul II Millstone as John Paul II's imminent beatification approaches:

John Paul II and Tiger Woods : bigger than life one day, sinners like any other the next day http://jp2m.blogspot.com/


John Paul II did not have the charity of Mother Teresa http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2009/11/john-paul-ii-did-not-have-charity-of.html

John Paul II the Great clashing cymbal of St. Paul http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2009/11/john-paul-ii-great-clashing-cymbal-of.html

Benedict XVI has no power to say « Let there be God » in the Eucharist just like he has no power to say « Let there be light » in Genesis
http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2009/12/benedict-xvi-has-no-power-to-say-let.html

Compare the CRIMES and their VICTIMS in America

Victims - Attackers - Responsible Leaders

Pearl Harbor - 3,000 victims - 170 planes - Admiral Yamamoto

WTC & 9/11 attacks - 5,000 victims - 19 Muslims - Osama bin Laden

USA Priest Pedophilia - 12,000 victims - 6,000 priests - John Paul II,
Benedict XVI & Opus Dei (Vatican Trinity)

--------


He was nine and an altar boy when the abuse began in 1985. In 1985 Tom Doyle gave John Paul II his intensive research of priest-pedophilia in New Orleans. But John Paul II went to lead his John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army for 26 years until his death in 2005


Failure of Church to stop abuse led to suicides and settlements‏

An Irish face of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army


Fr Thomas Naughton is taken into custody after being given a two-year sentence at Bray Circuit Court.
Photograph: Matt Kavanagh
In this section »

* Priest jailed for two years for abusing boy
* Justice catches up with abuser but victim's life is still on hold

BACKGROUND: Mervyn Rundle’s life could have been very different if complaints had been acted on, writes PATSY McGARRY Religious Affairs Correspondent

HAD BISHOP Donal Murray acted on complaints against Fr Thomas Naughton in 1983, Mervyn Rundle and others would have been spared the horrific abuse inflicted on them by the priest in later years.

Yesterday, Mr Rundle, who has great reason to be bitter but insists he is not, wondered “when are the guards going to start proceedings against these guys ”.
It’s just that “these guys” have “done wrong”, he said. He could not understand how they could still be bishops.

Had Bishop Murray acted appropriately when approached by parents in Valleymount with complaints about Naughton, Mervyn Rundle’s life would have been very different, and two other young men might still be alive. All were abused as boys by Naughton in Donnycarney – where he was moved to from Valleymount in 1984. Following further complaints there, Naughton was moved to Ringsend parish in 1986, where he continued to abuse.

The Murphy report is very clear on where responsibility lies for much of this. It said of Bishop Murray: “he did not deal properly with the suspicions and concerns that were expressed to him in relation to Fr Naughton (at Valleymount). When, a short time later, factual evidence of Fr Naughton’s abusing emerged in another parish (Donnycarney) Bishop Murray’s failure to reinvestigate the earlier suspicions (in Valleymount) was inexcusable.”

The report also found that this inaction by Bishop Murray and other authorities in the archdiocese meant “Fr Naughton was allowed to continue his abusive behaviour for several years, thereby damaging more victims”.

Such was the severity of the abuse in Mervyn Rundle’s case that he was awarded what is believed to be the largest ever settlement paid out by the Dublin archdiocese. It was significantly over €300,000, plus costs.

Another man – “Dave” (not his real name) – also settled with the archdiocese. Mervyn Rundle knew Dave. He recalled that two days after Naughton pleaded guilty to abusing Dave in Donnycarney, Dave took his own life. He wasn’t the only one. Mervyn recalled another man, also abused in the parish as a boy by Naughton, who took his own life before charges were brought in his case.

Speaking to this reporter at the Four Courts in Dublin on January 28th, 2003, just after he had reached his record settlement, Mervyn Rundle had a simple ambition. Then 28, he just wanted “to live my life and be normal like everyone else”. It had taken him 18 years to get to that point, he said then. Speaking yesterday, almost seven years later, he appears to have succeeded.

It has been a long haul.

He was nine and an altar boy when the abuse began in 1985. It was shortly after Naughton came to Donnycarney parish. The abuse continued through 1986. In 1998 Naughton received a three-year jail sentence for this abuse of Mervyn Rundle. That was reduced to 2½ years, on appeal.

The conviction followed a Garda investigation which began in 1995 when the Rundle family first reported the abuse to civil authorities. The family had first reported it to church authorities in Dublin in 1985, 10 years earlier.

Speaking at the Four Courts that January day in 2003, Rose Rundle, Mervyn’s mother, remembered how in 1985, “Mervyn came home and said, ‘that priest’s a queer’.” She continued: “I said, ‘what do ya mean?’ He said, ‘look at me’. All his clothes were messed up.” She contacted a family friend.

Her husband Mervyn snr, Mervyn jnr, and the friend went to see Mgr Alex Stenson, then chancellor of the archdiocese. Mgr Stenson asked to speak to Mervyn jnr alone. “He told me I was lying and said I better tell the truth very quickly,” Mervyn jnr recalled. He remembered the monsignor said: “ ‘Stop your lies, stop telling your lies’ . . . It was really fierce, really savage. I was terrified. But I said, ‘I’m not telling lies’. And I wasn’t.”

It emerged later that other Donnycarney parents had also complained to the church authorities about Naughton. They contacted Naughton. He admitted the abuse and was sent for treatment. Four months later he was back in parish work at Ringsend. There he resumed his abuse, targeting two altar boys in particular. After two years, and further complaints, he was removed from active parish work.

Despite all of this, the Rundle family were put through the wringer by Archbishop’s House.

It was why Mervyn Rundle was so happy that day – January 28th, 2003. “That’s what today means. It means that, finally, they have to admit that I was never telling lies, that all I ever told was the truth, just me, a 10-year-old child against all those big priests.

“This took seven years out of my life, and that’s just this one court case. They fought us every inch of the way. They started by telling us they’d give €75,000; take it or leave it.

“But I was determined. I mean, my life was in bits. Would you take €75,000 for that? No way. So we kept on fighting. We knew it was important to get the documents, because of all the meetings my father had had with them back when I was a child. And when my solicitor got them, there it was in black and white – they knew all about the priest, they knew that he was at children before he ever came near Donnycarney and me.

“And even then they still fought us, even though they had known this all along. It’s beyond belief, really, what they’re prepared to do. They made me go though seven years of fighting to get to this point. They could have saved me all that.

“One of the things that really hurts me is what they did to my parents. Both of them were very active in the parish. It was my father’s proudest day when he was made a Minister of the Eucharist. And then all this happened, and when my father went and told them at the archbishop’s palace about me being abused by Naughton, everything changed.

“My parents were shut out in the cold by the priests in the parish. They didn’t want to know my parents anymore; they cut them dead. That was just vicious.”

In 1995, Mervyn Rundle and his parents met Cardinal Connell about the abuse. He was very apologetic. But later, when the Rundles heard Naughton was still saying Mass publicly, they went to the gardaí.

Cardinal Connell did not inform gardaí that Naughton had admitted 10 years previously to abusing Mervyn. Mrs Rundle remembered how Mervyn “just cried and cried” after that meeting with Cardinal Connell. Mervyn, then 19, had become aware that other boys had been abused since he first reported the abuse to church authorities in 1985. “He cried so much because he felt guilty about the abuse of the others.”

After the settlement was announced, Cardinal Connell issued a statement expressing profound regret. He sincerely apologised, acknowledged that the abuse of Mervyn Rundle had occurred, and acknowledged that before he had been abused in 1985 “reasons for concern about the conduct of Fr Naughton had emerged which, had they been more successfully pursued, could have resulted in his withdrawal from parochial duties”.

There were five meetings with the archdiocese before the settlement and apology were agreed. Still, he was delighted. “I am delighted the Catholic Church has at last acknowledged the pain it caused a frightened young boy for so long,” he said.

John Paul II and Ireland's Roman Catholic archbishops 'covered up abuse to protect church's reputation'

Ireland's Roman Catholic archbishops 'covered up abuse to protect church's reputation'

See the John Paul II Millstone www.jp2m.blogspot.com on how John Paul II covered-up his John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army. And see how Benedict XVI www.pope-ratz.blogspot.com covered it up.

Ireland's Roman Catholic archbishops and police covered up four decades of child sex abuse by priests in a conspiracy to protect the reputation of the church, a report found.

By Matthew Moore
Published: 6:00PM GMT 26 Nov 2009



Cardinal Desmond Connell


Cardinal Desmond Connell who as Archbishop of Dublin failed to address the abuse scandals in the Dublin Diocese. Photo: EPA

Clergy were able to molest hundreds of vulnerable children because of a "systemic, calculated perversion of power" that put their abusers above the law, the Irish government said.

The damning verdict on the conduct of church and secular authorities followed a three-year investigation into allegations of child abuse by priests in Dublin going back to the 1960s.

Investigators who were given access to 60,000 previous secret church files accused four Archbishops of Dublin of deliberately suppressing evidence of "widespread" abuse.

Archbishops John Charles McQuaid, Dermot Ryan and Kevin McNamara, who have all since died, and Cardinal Desmond Connell, who is retired, all refused to pass information to local police, the report said.

Evidence was kept inside a secret vault in the archbishop's Dublin residence, with suspect clerics moved between parishes to prevent the allegations being made public.
For their part, Gardai frequently ignored complaints from victims, effectively granting priests immunity from prosecution. The inquiry found that church authorities nurtured inappropriately close relations with senior police officers.

Last night the current Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, apologised to the victims, describing their abuse as an "offence to God". He said: "I offer to each and every survivor my apology, my sorrow and my shame for what happened."

In a 750-page report published yesterday the Commission to Inquire into the Dublin Archdiocese blamed the church's "don't ask, don't tell" approach for perpetuating abuse.

"The Commission has no doubt that clerical child sexual abuse was covered up by the Archdiocese of Dublin and other Church authorities," it said.

"The structures and rules of the Catholic Church facilitated that cover-up.

"The State authorities facilitated that cover-up by not fulfilling their responsibilities to ensure that the law was applied equally to all and allowing the Church institutions to be beyond the reach of the normal law enforcement processes."
The inquiry, headed by Judge Yvonne Murphy, dismissed the claims of former bishops that they did not know sex abuse was a crime.

It concluded that the the church hierarchy was preoccupied with "the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church, and the preservation of its assets".

It added: "All other considerations, including the welfare of children and justice for victims, were subordinated to these priorities."

The commission looked at a sample study of allegations made by 320 children against 46 priests between 1975 and 2004. One priest admitted to sexually abusing over 100 children, while another accepted that he had abused on a fortnightly basis over 25 years.

Two of the priests featured in the report have their names blacked out so not to undermine ongoing criminal actions.

Dermot Ahern, the Irish justice minister, said that the Gardai would review its procedures for dealing with sexual abuse complaints, and promised to continue to pursue the perpetrators.

"The report catalogues evil after evil committed in the name of what was perversely seen as the greater good," he said.

"There is no escaping the cruel irony that the church, partly motivated by a desire to avoid scandal, in fact created a scandal on an astonishing scale."
Victims called for senior Catholics and police officers to face criminal charges over the cover-up, and for the inquiry to be expanded to cover every Irish archdiocese.

"Those who turn a blind eye to these offences are as much a part of the problem as those who actually commit them," said Andrew Madden, who helped blow the whistle on the abuse 10 years ago.

The publication of the report, which was submitted to the Irish government in July, is expected to prompt a wave of new child abuse allegations against Catholic priests.
On Wednesday the Christian Brothers religious order announced it had set aside £145 million to compensate children who had been abused in its schools in orphanages in Ireland.

That offer came six months after a landmark report revealed widespread sexual, physical and emotional abuse of children in Catholic-run institutions dating back to the 1930s.

Why Ireland Is Running Out of Priests

Posted by majestic on December 2, 2009

Bryan Coll reports for Time:


Wanted: Clean-living young people for a long career (women need not apply). Responsibilities: Varied. Spiritual guidance, visiting the sick, public relations, marriages (own marriage not permitted). Hours: On call at all times. Salary: None, bar basic monthly stipend.

He hasn’t placed classified ads in the Irish press just yet, but according to Father Patrick Rushe, coordinator of vocations with the Catholic Church in Ireland, “We’ve done just about everything” else to attract young men to the priesthood. And yet the call of service in one of Europe’s most religious countries is falling on more deaf ears than ever.

Earlier this month, the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, made a grim prediction about the future of the church in Ireland: If more young priests aren’t found quickly, the country’s parishes may soon not have enough clergy to survive. He told the congregation at St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral in Dublin that his diocese had 46 priests ages 80 or older but only two under 35. It’s a similar story all over the island. According to a 2007 study of Catholic dioceses in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, about half of all priests are between the ages of 55 and 74.

Ireland’s ties to the Catholic Church run deep. The ordination of a family member was once regarded as a moment of great prestige, especially in rural areas. Even as recently as 1990, over 80% of Irish people said they attended Mass at least once a week. But the country’s relationship with the church began to change dramatically in the mid-1990s, when Ireland’s economy began to take off, ushering in years of unprecedented growth…

Lawsuit against 11 John Paul II Pedophile Priests in Minnesota

The legacy of the John Paul II Millstone http://jp2m.blogspot.com/ keeps piling up. As his beatification approaches, more victims are coming out. Ireland, one of the most Catholic countries in Europe is erupting with scandals of the sexual abuse done by the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army. Benedict XVI http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/ has called for a meeting with the Irish bishops but it is too late. The harm is done.

The cover-up of the most disgusting sin against children by Benedict XVI and John Paul II proves that they - the representatives of Christ - are smart sinners like any ciminals.

Lawsuit names 11 child molesting clerics

http://www.snapnetwork.org/snap_press_releases/2009_press_releases/120809_lawsuit_names_11_child_molesting_clerics.htm

It’s the first fraud case against Benedictines

And man who’s suing for child sex abuse speaks for the first time

He’ll urge others who were hurt by Minnesota church employees to “speak up”

WHAT
At two news conferences, two clergy sex abuse victims and an attorney will announce a new fraud lawsuit against a high profile Catholic school and religious order. The suit
--charges that church and school officials committed fraud and concealed child sex crimes, and
--identifies, by name, 11 accused child molesting clerics who are or were at the school.

WHEN
Tuesday, Dec. 8, 1:00 p.m.

WHERE
Outside the Stearns County Courthouse, 725 Courthouse Square, in St. Cloud MN

WHO
The victim in this case, who is speaking publicly for the first time ever, and his lawyer, along with a man who heads the local chapter of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org)

WHY
The lawsuit charges that from 1960 through the present, the Benedictines at St. John’s in Collegeville “conspired to (conceal, aid and abet) criminal conduct, failed to report criminal conduct (and) evaded prosecution and committed fraud by protecting predatory priests. It’s the first such lawsuit of its kind, focusing on cover ups of by the Benedictine hierarchy more than the crimes of Benedictine child molesting clerics.

The suit identifies 11 proven, admitted or credibly accused abusive Benedictines who are at St. John’s or have spent time there, including Brother John Kelly, Fr. Finnian McDonald, Fr. Dunston Moorse, Fr. Allen Tarlton, Fr. Richard E. Eckroth, Fr. Brennan Maiers, Abott John Eidenschenk, Fr. Cosmos Dahlheimer, Fr. Francis Hoelgen and Fr. Thomas Gillespie. Their allege crimes spanned almost 25 years – from the early 1960s through the mid-1985. All but one of the 11 are accused of crimes against children.

The victim in this case, Jeramiah (Jerry) McCarthy, reports having been sexually victimized by Fr. Bruce Wollmering around 1971, when he was “required to see Wollmering for academic and psychological testing and individual emotional and spiritual counseling” on school premises during and after school-sponsored activities and events.

In 2004, Wollmering was accused of molesting a different St. John’s student in the 1980s. In 2006, church officials determined that allegations against Wollmering were credible. Until recently, Wollmering lived at the abbey and was listed on the St. John’s website as the abbey’s “gardening coordinator.” He died in February.

Last year, SNAP wrote and complained to the Chicago-based Catholic Press Association which gave an award to Wollmering. Such honors, victims say, discourage other victims from reporting child sex crimes and “rub even more salt into the already deep and still fresh wounds of those molested.” They sought a public apology from the group, but got no response. (Wollmering was honored for ‘best essay’ which appeared in The Abbey Banner.)

The president of the Catholic Press Association is Bob Zyskowski, editor of The Catholic Spirit, the weekly newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis (651-291-4444, zyskowskiR@archspm.org) More information about the awards can be found at http://www.catholicpress.org/

CONTACT
Patrick Noaker of St. Paul MN, 651 227 9990, 612 961 1307 cell
Bob Schwiderski of Wayzata MN, Minnesota SNAP Director 612 840 7290 cell, 952 471 3422 home
David Clohessy of St. Louis MO, SNAP National Director 314 566 9790
Barbara Dorris of St. Louis MO, SNAP Outreach Director 314 862 7688

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
www.snapnetwork.org