Somene asked for the PDFs of the letters about the Portland, Oregon, cases. They are at BishopAccountability.org.
For the Laughlin letters, go here
and for Steigerwald letter, go here.
in clergy sex abuse scandal No Comments
Somene asked for the PDFs of the letters about the Portland, Oregon, cases. They are at BishopAccountability.org.
For the Laughlin letters, go here
and for Steigerwald letter, go here.
in Catholic Church, Indians, Navajo, Southwest No Comments Tags: Arturo Vazquez, Dwight Longenecker, Hopis, kachinas, Liberal religion
Arturo Vasquez over at the ever-fascinating Reditus spends a great deal of time, perhaps a little too much, in the curious corners of Catholicism, or perhaps semi-Catholicism: the bandit saints, popularly-canonized dogs, curanderos, Hermeticism, etc. I love it. He posited one explanation for his identity:
3. Arturo Vasquez is a witch: We are surprised that people don’t make this accusation more often, because this is the one that would stick the best. “Behind all of his piety, and pretensions of traditionalism, Arturo uses his large basement for spells and other dark works. That is why he posts all of those questionable prayers, pictures of folk saints, and essays on Renaissance magic on his blog: to promote his business as a Tarot card reader and curandero.” “Yeah, I’ve seen him. Arturo was hustling on a street corner and offered to read my palm and put a curse on my ex-boyfriend for dumping me for my best friend.” “Arturo said he would cure my kid of the evil eye but instead made his skin turn purple. And the poor child can’t stop singing Prince songs.” “Arturo turned half of the members of the Ladies Altar Guild Wiccan.” And so forth. If there was still an Inquisition, he would be the first burned at the stake if his critics were Dominicans with a huge axe to grind.
Dwight Longenecker, Anglican-turned-Catholic, would seem to be at the opposite pole from Vasquez, but he comments upon modern liberal religion:
Religion, if it is religion at all, is surely about man’s commerce with the supernatural realm. In this sense Paganism is a real religion. A priest sacrificing chickens or virgins to a monstrous deity in hope of supernatural protection and power is what I call religion. An animist, high on the fermented juice of the tropical tree, dancing around the campfire and cutting himself to satisfy the spirit of the river is a real religion. So is a Buddhist monk sitting in a snowdrift in his underpants humming his mantra and transcending the cold. For that matter, even the Mormon baptizing someone for the dead or a televangelist praying down the Holy Spirit fire to heal, mightily heal is practicing real religion. It may be a false or misguided religion, but at least it is religion.
All of this is in contrast to the milk and water that much of mainstream modern Christianity has become in most Western cultures. There is no religion there because the modernists no longer believe in the supernatural.
When I was a guest of the Hopis, it was clear they really believe in the kachinas, the spirits that mediate between us and the Creator. They hope to become a kachina when they die and bring God’s blessings, especially rain, to their people.
Some say the American South is, or at least used to be, not exactly God-centered, but God-haunted. For me, and for many, the American Southwest is spirit-haunted. The veil between this world and the next is very thin in the desert. And the Hopis and the Navajos and the others know that the spirits are not effeminate semi-males with wings, but fearful, even when they are friendly.
in clergy sex abuse scandal, Vatican 15 Comments Tags: Pope Benedict, Portland Oregon, sexual abuse, Vatican
On July, 8, 1988, Archbishop Levada of Portland , Oregon, wrote to Cardinal Ratzinger, then head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, about the case of the Rev. Thomas Laughlin.
Laughlin, Levada explains, was ordained in 1948 at the age of 23. Levada continues, “he began homosexual contacts with boys shortly after his ordination (about age 25), and admitted to such misconduct both during his first priestly assignment as a teacher at Central Catholic High School, and as a pastor of St. Mary Parish in Corvallis. These contacts continued and apparently increased in frequency and number during his tenure as pastor of All Saints Parish until the time criminal charges of sexual abuse of minors were brought against him in 1983.”
“The reliable testimony of several boys questioned suggests that Fr. Laughlin used the confessional for purposes of solicitation.
“Even after his conviction, sentence, and having served six months in prison, he abused the privilege of his court ordered parole under the aegis of the Servants of the Paraclete in New Mexico by arranging for a secret liaison with one of the young men he had molested, and paid for his journey to meet him in San Diego for the purposes of engaging in sexual conduct.”
Archbishop Power of Portland had known about the abuse by at least 1975 and had not acted on it. That is not surprising, since in 1976 Power had received this letter from an official of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate Seminary in British Columbia in which the official conveyed information from a “most reliable source” about Philip Steigerwald:
PHILIP STEIGERWALD, presently working in Queen of Peace, Salem, Oregon, scheduled to be ordained to the Priesthood on the 20th day of June , 1976, is an avowed homosexual.
He rationalizes that neither the world nor the Church, at the present time, understands the beauty and good in such a relationship. His companion, at the present time, is another seminarian at Mount Angel (redacted). Philip has practiced homosexuality since thirteen years of age and claims to have been initiated into this practice by his confessor at that time.
This situation is known to his mother, some of his family and, at least two or more seminarians.
Archbishop Power found this letter no reason not to ordain Steigerwald, who of course made sexual advances to boys in his parish. Years later, their mother found out, and talked to a priest, who told them “that the archdiocese knew before they ordained Phil that he was a homosexual.” The mother wanted an explanation. So do I. The most probable one is not flattering to the personal moral conduct of Archbishop Power.
Ratzinger may not have known about the type of person who Power thought was suitable for the priesthood, but he certainly knew there were severe problems in the Church in the United States. Why the failure to act effectively? Did Ratzinger tell himself these must be bizarre and isolated cases – but he was getting them on a regular basis. Or was he following John Paul’s implicit or explicit instructions about how to handle sexual abuse cases discretely and quietly? As Pope Benedict, Ratzinger owes the Church an explanation.
in clergy sex abuse scandal, Vatican 3 Comments Tags: Ireland, money, sexual abuse, Vatican
The Irish Times examined the failure of the Vatican to handle the news about the meeting with the Irish bishops.
It also gives an explanation, all too probable, for the failure of the Vatican to cooperate with the Irish government or to admit any responsibility for clerical abuse:
Which brings us to one of the bottom lines of Holy See thinking on the question of clerical sex abuse – a bottom line which explains all the insistence on “appropriate diplomatic channels” for contacts between the Murphy commission and the Holy Office or indeed the papal nuncio’s refusal to go before the foreign affairs committee, namely, that co-operating with the commission or going before the Oireachtas committee could in some way be interpreted as admission of legal (whatever about moral) responsibility for clerical sex abuse.
The Holy See has looked on aghast as the US Catholic Church has paid out upwards of $2 billion in damages to victims of clerical sex abuse. This is one buck that it does not want to see stop at the Apostolic Palace.
As we all know, our treasure is here, and bishops obviously think that when they stand before the judgment seta of God they will be judged on the size of the bank accounts they left behind in their dioceses. Lady Mead, Money, has been the curse of the Church for centuries, and continues to exert her poisonous influence in the corridors of the Vatican.
in Indians, Navajo, war 1 Comment Tags: Indians, Navajo, soldiers, war
The New York Times each day publishes the names of the soldiers who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. I read them each day and say a prayer for them. It is the least I can do for those who have died to keep me and my family safe.
The names and home towns reveal a lot: a lot if Hispanic names, and most are from small towns. One in particular struck me:
YAZZIE, Alejandro J. 23. Lane Cpl., Marines; Rock Point, Ariz.: First Marine Division.
A Navajo, dying to defend the United States.
At the Pueblo Indian Center in Albuquerque there is a bronze statue of Indians as soldiers in the U. S. Army. All these young Indians had left after their land was stolen from them was their courage and blood, which they offered to their conquerors in order to survive. Sometimes it’s hard to look a Native American in the face after what we Europeans have done to them.
in clergy sex abuse scandal, Vatican 25 Comments Tags: Pope Benedict, reform
What could the Pope do, as one person asked?
Many, many things:
He should immediately remove from the clergy all bishops who are known to be corrupt and abusers. There are about twenty, starting with Mr. Sanchez of Santa Fe (he of girlfriends A, B, C, D, E…).
He should immediately remove from the cardinalate, and probably from the clergy, all Cardinals who have known about the abuse of children and let it go on. We should have Mr. Law and Mr. Mahony.
He should order all dioceses and religious orders to publish the names of all known abusers and to open their archives to researchers.
He should admit the failures of his predecessors, at least of Paul VI and John Paul II, who were informed of the abuse and refused to act against it.
He should halt the processes for their canonization. Those Popes failed, and children were raped and committed suicide.
He should discuss the sources of his own blindness for so many years. I have documents with his signature on them: he knew about some of the worst cases, such as El Paso. Did he really have no idea of what had occurred in the cases he handled?
He should take up world-wide collection for the victims of abuse and sell a few items from the Vatican to pay into this fund.
If Benedict does at least this, perhaps bishops through to the world will know he is serious and then and only then will they stop their clergy from abusing young people. Until then, it is all hot air, and his comments will be ignored as so much PR.
in clergy sex abuse scandal, Vatican 5 Comments
Pope Benedict will write a letter to the faithful of Ireland.
Ecclesiastical bureaucrats and professors (and Pope Benedict was both) live in a world of words, and think that saying the correct thing is equivalent to, even better than, doing the correct thing. Having said the correct words, they cannot understand why people want them to do something. The Pope will write a letter; and bishops have allowed tens of thousands of children and young people to be molested, raped, and tortured by Catholic priests and religious. And Benedict will think he has done enough.
in clergy sex abuse scandal, Psychology, Responsibility 1 Comment
My discussion of the Schmidt case has obvious relevance to clerical sexual abuse. The abusers may have been, in some sense of the word, “sick”; they certainly had distorted personalities. But whatever the source of their desire to have sex with minors, they were guilty when they acted on that desire.
As Joe said, a good verdict would be “sick but guilty.” The general approach of the Church during the past fifty years that abusers were sick, and were therefore not guilty, and therefore it would be wrong to punish them. The fallacy is that any mental illness removes responsibility and guilt.
in clergy sex abuse scandal, Ireland, Vatican 9 Comments Tags: Ireland, pope, sexual abuse
Pope Benedict and the Irish bishops have issued a communiqué.
For his part, the Holy Father observed that the sexual abuse of children and young people is not only a heinous crime, but also a grave sin which offends God and wounds the dignity of the human person created in his image.
The Holy Father also pointed to the more general crisis of faith affecting the Church and he linked that to the lack of respect for the human person and how the weakening of faith has been a significant contributing factor in the phenomenon of the sexual abuse of minors.
Good words, but only words.
Although Benedict has acted more strongly against priest-abusers than any pope since Pius V, he has not really acted against bishops who have abused or against bishops who have tolerated abuse.
Bishops who have committed sexual abuse remain bishops: they could be laicized, like Bishop Fernando Lugo of Paraguay was when he was elected president But these criminal bishops remain bishops “in good standing” in the Church.
Cardinal Law was given a luxurious post in Rome and sits on my important committees. A few Irish bishops have been forced to resign because of public outrage, but of all the bishops who have tolerated sexual abuse, only a handful have suffered any consequences beyond having to issue apologies written by their lawyers.
Having read hundreds of cases, I wonder whether many of the abusers are atheists, in fact whether some of the bishops are atheists. It is hard to imagine a believer who thought he would stand before the judgment of God who would enact, tolerate, and enable such blasphemous sacrileges.
It would not be the first time the clergy and hierarchy was riddled with unbelief – the weakness of faith in the French clergy of the 18th century was unmasked by the Revolution.
in guilt, law enforcement, Responsibility 1 Comment
The Naples Daily News reports
A Brevard County woman claiming to be God’s messenger has been charged with attempted murder after reportedly shooting at a family on their back porch.
The sheriff’s office reports that 47-year-old Kathleen Aceto showed up with a gun and began shooting Friday morning. A man in the house grabbed a gun and fired back, and Aceto ran away.
Deputies responded and arrested Aceto, who lives a block from where the shooting occurred. She reportedly told the deputies that God told her to do it.
Aceto was charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, armed burglary, shooting into an occupied dwelling and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
She was being held without bail, and her mental health was being evaluated.
If she really thought that God told her to shoot the neighbors (to judge the probability of this one would have to know the neighbors) and she had been a better shot, should she be found guilty of murder? Or should she be sent to a theological reeducation camp like St. Luke’s in Suitland?
In 1913 a priest from Germany, the Rev. Hans Schmidt, killed his pregnant mistress. The police, after finding her dismembered body in the Hudson, suspected foul play. A pillowcase (of all things) let them to Schmidt, and he immediately confessed he had killed her, but that God had appeared to him in the chalice and told Schmidt to offer her as a love offering, in the same way God had appeared to Abraham and commanded him to sacrifice Isaac.
The State of New York did not believe Schmidt, and tried him for murder. Schmidt put on a good show of insanity at the trial, confessing to everything up to and including necrophilia. The jury at the second trial thought he was acting and convicted Schmidt, who was sentenced to death.
Schmidt then appealed his conviction on the grounds that he was only pretending to be insane. Schmidt admitted that he had accidentally killed his mistress in the course of giving her an abortion, but he had not intended to kill her. The penalty for abortion in New York was draconian, and Schmidt wanted to protect his accomplices. Schmidt assumed he would be found not guilty by reason of insanity, put in a comfy asylum for a while, and then deported to Germany.
Justice Cardozo heard the appeal. He told Schmidt that he was entitled to a new trial only if evidence not known at the time of the trail came to light. But Schmidt knew the evidence and lied to the court. Therefore Cardozo refused the appeal.
Cardozo, not letting well enough alone, went on to create the “deific exception.” Cardozo said that if Schmidt sincerely thought that God had commanded him to kill his mistress, Schmidt would not be guilty.
But what of the Moslems who tell courts that God told them (in the Koran, or elsewhere) to kill promiscuous daughters? This defense has been used in honor killing cases.
What Cardozo should have said that if Schmidt sincerely believed that God wanted him to kill his mistress he should also remember that God had established the secular power to do justice and therefore wanted Schmidt to suffer the consequences of his actions in the electric chair. Schmidt is the only priest ever executed in the United States and Canada.
Therefore, even if Ms. Aceto sincerely believed that God wanted her to shoot her neighbors (and I have had neighbors who needed shooting), she should also believe that God wanted the secular authorities to carry out their God-given task of disarming and incarcerating Ms. Aceto.
Incarceration is usually shorter than treatment. Our legal system has not yet determined how to deal with criminals who we are almost certain will commit another crime after their release. In general, it is not good to punish a person for a crime he might commit, and civil commitment to an asylum is in reality punishment.
in Liturgy, Music 8 Comments Tags: Church music, Liturgy, singing
Commonweal is having a discussion in the decades-old topic “Why Catholics Can’t (or Won’t) Sing.”
The lack of singing at Mass is a symptom that the liturgical renewal was not a popular movement: it was developed by a small group of enthusiasts and scholars and imposed on the laity without any consultation. Catholics have a strong attraction to a priori reasoning: according to theological principles, the liturgy should looks like this (full active participation) so let’s change it so that it does look like this. There was a weak sense of the realities of the situation.
The standard low Mass had its faults, but it was familiar, and people were used to it it and had no real objections to it. Breaking the habit of the low mass was one of the reasons that mass attendance has declined precipitously.
Catholics who continue to go to Mass do so mostly out of a sense of duty and many if not most would be relieved if the laity were never asked to sing again.
The situation of elites imposing their agenda is often a function of narcissism. The cantor and the choir and the musicians want to give a performance, and often do not care if the congregation sings. I have watched cantors and organists change tempos so that the confused congregation would stop singing and everyone could pay attention to the performers. Even if the cantor is not a narcissist (it occasionally happens), sound systems guarantee that the cantor’s voice will dominate everyone else’s.
When the congregation does sing, it often shows an equal narcissism and likes songs of the utmost theological questionableness: “Ashes” for Ash Wednesday, “To Dream the Impossible Dream,” and similar self-indulgent, emotional bathos.
I do not see any easy way to cultivate congregational singing. Traditions cannot be made to appear at command. Catholic schools used to teach music, but there are fewer and fewer students in these schools very year.
PS: I wish Catholics would sing. When I go to Protestant services and everyone sings enthusiastically, it really increases the experience that we are praying and praising together.