The just-released grand jury testimony of Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua shines a light on the warped thinking that has allowed the priest sexual abuse scandal to fester for decades, while victims are left to fend for themselves. A prosecutor asked Bevilacqua why he allowed a priest with a lengthy and disturbing record of sexual abuse to remain in active duty. Bevilacqua’s response: because a priest “has rights.”
Yes, your Eminence, but what about the kids?
Indeed, priests have rights and are presumed innocent just like any other citizen. There should be an impartial investigation. If charges are filed, they should receive a fair trial before a jury of their peers. But they do not have the right to sexually abuse kids; get moved from parish to parish; and not have to answer for their actions. And their bosses have no right to aid in the cover-up.
Sadly, that’s exactly what happened during Bevilacqua’s reign of error.
Take the priest that Bevilacqua told grand jurors “has rights.” He was accused of raping and impregnating an 11-year-old girl and molesting another child in a confessional. In all, that priest allegedly assaulted eight victims.
At some point Bevilacqua and other higher-ups in the Roman Catholic Church that extends to the Vatican needed to say we must get to the bottom of this mess and stop enabling these monsters. Instead, the church’s approach has been to ignore, dodge, cover up, and discredit victims. Above all else: deny, deny, deny. If all else fails, scratch out a check to an occasional victim when complete confidentiality is required.
Bevilacqua’s testimony sounded like he was more afraid of the predator priests than of protecting abused children. “If we tried to remove him, he could bring action,” the cardinal testified. That defense is an insult.
Two grand juries all but accused Bevilacqua of wrongdoing. A grand jury in 2005 said he “excused and enabled” sexual abuse by priests. The second grand jury in 2011 said the abuse was “known, tolerated, and hidden by high church officials, up to and including the cardinal himself.” Statute of limitations prevented the 2005 grand jury from charging Bevilacqua and top aides with crimes. The 2011 grand jury said: “We would like to hold Cardinal Bevilacqua accountable.”
In many ways, the cover-up is just as bad as the crimes. But Bevilacqua, 88, has dodged responsibility. He retired in 2003 and is said to be suffering from cancer and dementia.
Bevilacqua’s successor, Cardinal Justin Rigali, continued the cover-up and did little to root out problem priests. The second grand jury report released in February found as many as 37 priests remained in active ministry despite accusations against them of sexual abuse or other inappropriate behavior with minors.
Rigali initially responded to the February report with a fancy tap dance of legal language that said there were no active priests “who have an admitted or established allegation of sexual abuse of a minor against them.” The response further angered Catholics who are sick and tired of being misled and lied to by church leaders. It further showed how the church remains in denial of the crimes and continues the cover-up. (To his credit, Rigali later apologized and the Archdiocese suspended 21 priests, but further damage to the church was done.)
It’s unlikely Rigali’s incoming replacement, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Denver, will be any more aggressive when it comes to rooting out problem priests. Chaput is a staunch defender of church policies and has fought legislative efforts in Denver to pass laws that would give victims time to file civil claims where the statute of limitations has expired.
Indeed, the cover-up efforts by the church go all the way to the Vatican and are not limited to Philadelphia. The only church leaders who get promoted appear to be the hard-liners who maintain the cover-up.
That’s all the more reason why Common Pleas Court Judge Lillian Ransom was wrong on Monday to seal the recently released grand jury testimony by Archdiocesan officials. Bevilacqua, Rigali and other church leaders have shown they can’t honestly address the priest abuse scandal that continues to roil the church.
God’s sunlight remains the best disinfectant.
Paul Davies spent 25 years in the newspaper business, including stops at the Daily News, the Inquirer and the Wall Street Journal. He can be reached at davies2226@yahoo.com.
July 27th, 2011 at 9:13 am
July 27th, 2011 at 9:27 am
July 27th, 2011 at 10:34 am
July 27th, 2011 at 10:47 am
July 27th, 2011 at 11:03 am
Judge Lillian Ransom is just as guilty as the two PA judges who sent virtually innocent children to private juvenile detention centers for over $2.7 million dollars in illegal kickbacks. The detention centers are owned by Gregory Zappala, son of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Stephen Zappala Sr. and brother of Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala, Jr. DA Zappala also sits on the Bishops Council National Review Board that oversees clergy abuse.
Welcome to PA, the pro-pedophile state.
Mike Ference
July 27th, 2011 at 11:07 am
July 27th, 2011 at 11:14 am
http://www.yardbird.com/luna_murder_resembles_1932_PA_mob_hit.htm
Mike Ference
July 27th, 2011 at 11:27 am
http://www.yardbird.com/luna_murder_resembles_1932_PA_mob_hit.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/22/obituaries/joseph-a-bevilacqua-dies-at-70-rhode-island-judge-linked-to-mob.html
Mike Ference
July 27th, 2011 at 11:28 am
July 27th, 2011 at 11:32 am
Ties to organized crime?
I’ve been researching corruption in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania since 1969, beginning with my senior class term paper on the corruption in labor unions. Former Allegheny County coroner and world-renowned forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht claimed that current Allegheny County District Attorney Steven Zappala Jr. said to a legislator in 2005 that anybody who screws with him or his family is going to get indicted. Wecht would then go on to volunteer to take a polygraph test.
Sadly, those words weren’t enough to prevent Zappala’s indictment of state Sen. Jane Orie. So, I have a question for the Pittsburgh branch of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office and any local, state or federal agency involved with investigating organized crime.
My question is this:
Can anyone verify that Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala has no ties to organized crime? The same question goes for any past Allegheny County district attorneys.
My research is done. I also understand that law enforcement agencies might not want to dignify my question with a response.
Mike Ference
Clairton
http://www.butlereagle.com/article/20100413/EDITORIAL02/704139871/-1/Editorial02
July 27th, 2011 at 11:39 am
By Mike Ference
Sandy Fonzo is one brave woman. She knows what it feels like to yell charge and sadly, go into battle alone. Things may be changing, soon. Fonzo is organizing a support group for victims and their families of the Luzerne County cash-for-kids scandal. “Our first meeting is Wednesday, May 25th, 6:00 pm at the Panera Bread in Wilkes-Barre, PA. Anyone interested in attending may call Fonzo at 570-200-5866 or email her at Sdeef513@aol.com.
“We need to get together. To talk about our children, our feelings and to help each other heal, says the 42-year-old mom, who lost her son to the cash-for-kids scandal on June 1, 2010. My son was a victim – like thousands of children – of the most corrupt judicial systems in America, if not the world,” Fonzo stated.
Fonzo is referring to the cash-for-kids scandal in which two Pennsylvania judges received $2.6 million in kickbacks for sending more than 6,000 pre-teen and teenage children to profit PA Child Care juvenile detention centers in Pittston Township and Butler County. If you do the math, PA children were bought and sold for less than $500. Sadly, little is being done to correct the problem.
Yes, Judge Michael Conahan plead guilty to several charges as part of a plea bargain, and in February Judge Mark Ciavarella was convicted on 12 counts by a jury. But Pennsylvania’s hellish shortcomings in protecting children are not limited to two “rogue” judges or even the owners and builders of the profiteering detention centers.
We have to ask why so many of these children and their families waved their right to an attorney, and why years went by before pleas for help were heard. It’s hard not to conclude that the system is rigged — intentionally or not — to make such child trafficking easier. Allegations have also been made that the mob was involved, and intimidated both victims and potential whistleblowers to keep quiet.
Whether a group of judges, mob members, business owners and politicians actually sat in the same room hatching this plot or not, something this complex can only be called “organized crime.” And when something this horrific can happen, we have to say that anyone not actively working to fix the system shares in the guilt.
Fonzo’s son committed suicide. According to family members, this spirited champion wrestler and potential college graduate was never the same after spending 2 terms in two private detention centers owned by Gregory Zappala, son of former PA Supreme Court Chief Justice Stephen Zappala and brother of current Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala, Jr., the second largest county in PA.
Most criminals would shy away from trying to extort money from a person with those types of connections, but in Luzerne County, anything is possible. So far, Zappala has not been charged.
Early in the investigation, Stephen Zappala Jr., labeled his brother, Gregory, a victim, according to media reports. Ironically, on June 1, 2010, the same day Fonzo’s son committed suicide, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, then, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops appointed Stephen Zappala Jr. to a three-year term to the National Review Board. Board members collaborate with the USCCB in preventing the sexual abuse of minors in the United States by persons in the service of the church.
“Perhaps, the hardest part of healing for any of us, is knowing that child trafficking is not supposed to happen in America, let alone to your son, or child, and, under the watchful eye of judges, district attorneys, elected officials and law enforcement,” says Fonzo
The survivors and victims are the only ones who can make a difference. “We will need to change the laws. We will need to oversee the juvenile board. We will be the ones to make sure, another cash-for-kids scandal does not happen again, ever, Fonzo explains.
At least one special guest has been invited to talk to the support group at their first meeting. “I’ve invited Laurene Transue a newly appointed member of the Juvenile Justice Board, Fonzo said. “I’m sure first-timers will be looking for answers. Hopefully, Transue will have them, as well as some hope,” Fonzo says.
Family survivors and victims of the Luzerne County Cash for Kids scandal are the only ones who understand the depth and raw pain, we endure everyday, says Fonzo. “We need to reverse those feelings. Hopefully, the support group will help.”
July 27th, 2011 at 11:43 am
The abuse will continue veils of secrecy are lifted and society confronts the problem.
July 27th, 2011 at 12:10 pm
Irish politician, the Prime Minister of Ireland, Enda Kenny, did state “The rape and torture of children were downplayed and ‘managed’ to uphold instead the primacy of the institution, its power, standing and reputation.” It’s deplorable that United States politicians have not taken a similar stand. The Philadelphia judge just put another smug face on the Pope. It’s all about the money for both the church and the politicians. They forgot that those children would grow up, vote and have a voice heard around the world.
July 27th, 2011 at 2:19 pm
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
District Attorney R. Seth Williams
Assistant District Attorney Mariana Sorensen
July 22, 2011
[This response originally included at least ten appendices that provided transcripts and documents from the grand jury proceedings that resulted in the 2005 Philadelphia Grand Jury Report. The appendices included testimony of Cardinal Bevilacqua, Msgr. Lynn, Bishop Cullen, and Bishop Cistone. Appendix E contained documents from the archdiocesan files of Fr. Avery and Fr. Brennan. The appendices were contained in two boxes filed with the court. The Philadelphia Inquirer obtained the Bevilacqua portion of the appendix material on 7/22/11 and published a front-page article about the material on 7/24/11. The newspaper published a commentary on 7/27/11 that also quoted from the Bevilacqua material. But when the reporters went back to the courthouse on Monday 7/25/11, they were denied access. Later on Monday, Judge Lillian Ransom ordered the grand jury testimony sealed, although attorneys for the archdiocese and for the accused had not requested such action. For Judge Ransom's summary of her sealing order, see the docket. See also the Inquirer's 7/26/11 account of the denial of access. A hearing will be scheduled regarding the files.
The document filed on 7/22/11 contains a history of the case (pp. 2-5), a description of the significance of the documents now under seal (pp. 14-16, reproduced below), an analysis of the archdiocese's "common criminal scheme" and its effects on the victims (pp. 34ff), and a discussion of the overpaqlling evidence regarding the activities of Lynn, Avery, and Brennan (pp. 41 ff.).
We have redacted two victims' names from the document, as was done in the 2011 Presentment and Grand Jury Report.]
In the present case, when the crimes often involve agreeing to do nothing when action is called for to protect children – and when the co-conspirators worked for an organization that was systematically covering up evidence and producing documents using obscure language so that their true meaning could not be ascertained – the task is especially complex. The Commonwealth cannot point to merely a few pages in notes of testimony, or a handful of documents, to prove that the actions of Lynn and the priests in this case were part of a decades-long conspiracy that endangered children.
To understand Lynn’s interactions with Avery and Brennan, a fact finder needs to look at the files of dozens of other priests whom Lynn supervised. What might look like an innocuous transfer, an accidental omission, or a mistake in judgment in a single case can only be understood as intentional when it is repeated over and over in the handling of other abusers in the priesthood.
The fact finder cannot fully comprehend the deliberate deception that Lynn and others employed to help sexual predators remain in assignments with access to children without reading the entire testimony of Archdiocese officials – including Lynn, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, Bishop Edward Cullen, and Bishop Joseph Cistone, – as they tried to explain their handling of known and admitted rapists and serial molesters. (Notes of their testimony before Grand Juries XVIII and XIX are included in this response as Appendices G, H, I, and J, and have been made available to defendants.) (Note 4: Notes of testimony cited in this response are included in Appendix F. They have been made available to defendants.) These are not witnesses who told the grand juries openly and honestly what they did and what they knew. There are no discreet passages in which they describe their common understanding that, rather than expose pedophiles or report them to police, they would instead choose to put parish children at risk. Their methods are revealed only in thousands of pages of documentary evidence – and in the church officials’ dissembling, inconsistent, blameshifting, and evasive answers over numerous days of testimony.
Three grand juries spent over four years amassing the evidence that establishes the conspiracy between Lynn and the abusive priests he supervised. Judge Hughes reasonably found that repeating the evidence heard by the Grand Jury at a preliminary hearing, and then again at trial, would entail an enormous and unnecessary drain on judicial resources. Given that Judge Hughes’s rulings have already established the law of the case, there is no reason for this Court to review all of the evidence of conspiracy. If it chooses to do so, however, the 2005 Grand Jury report and the presentment for this case detail the evidence that the Commonwealth relies on to support the charges. (Note 5: Attached to this memorandum are some of the documents from the Archdiocese’s files on Avery and Brennan, which have been turned over to defense counsel (Appendix E). The 2005 Grand Jury report describes hundreds of similar documents for over a dozen priests who had similar interactions with Lynn.) [pp. 14-16]
Posted by Terry McKiernan at 12:07 PM
July 27th, 2011 at 7:51 pm
Let’s keep recycling this story from years ago as it gets good ratings from all of the Catholic haters–the leftist version of the Tea Party folks.
But let’s play a game of pretend.
Let’s pretend that these things happened yesterday and not 30, 40 or 50 years ago and that attitudes towards children and child sex abuse were exactly as they are in the year 2011.
Let’s pretend that there is not an unreported epidemic of sex abuse in the public schools. (Where are the headlines about sex abuse in the government school system–where the problem is a reported 100 times worse TODAY than anything ever in the Catholic church?)
See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/21/AR2007102100144.html
Let’s pretend that critics of the church are actually really concerned about sex abuse and not shaking with hatred towards the Catholic church for it’s failure to join the sexual revolution–which we now know has worked out quite well with an AIDS epidemic, abortion on demand, stratospheric levels of divorce and millions of young urban black kids without any fathers or any hope of a decent life.
And finally let’s pretend that there is absolutely no media bias towards the Catholic church. See http://www.themediareport.com/
Andre Thomas
July 27th, 2011 at 8:29 pm
Judge Ransoms order to seal Cardinal Bevilaqua’s testimony, is more of the same. I imagine she too has some “good reason” for sealing the files. The real question is who is really being protected here? Certainly not the untold number of children and families devastated by clergy sexual abuse in Philadelphia.
The Grand Jury report made clear…”the abuse was “known,tolerated and hidden by high church officials, up to and including the cardinal himself.” Now our own justice system is (hopefully unwittingly) doing much of the same. Paul Davies is ABSOLUTELY correct….the judge is simply wrong in this case, haven’t we seen enough secrecy and cover-ups which clearly indicate….The Whole Truth MUST BE TOLD!
Bravo to the Governement of Ireland, they “get it” and are no longer tolerating the silence and secrecy church leaders have employed to “manage the crisis”. We need a few people like Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny to set things straight!
July 27th, 2011 at 9:22 pm
July 28th, 2011 at 12:00 am
Mike Ference
July 28th, 2011 at 9:35 am
July 28th, 2011 at 10:54 am
If it weren’t such a serious matter, I would find it laughable that Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. has announced plans to “revisit some of the matters” during the tenure of one-time Pittsburgh Catholic Bishop Anthony Bevilacqua now that the former cardinal of the Philadelphia archdiocese has been accused of transferring and possibly covering up crimes of priests accused of sexual abuse and never warning the unsuspecting parishioners in the new churches.
Perhaps Zappala can start by “revisiting” documentation that I provided years ago to two Allegheny County Detectives (Logan and Andrews) regarding an alleged cover-up that inspired the current McKeesport Police Chief to tell me that a grand jury investigation was merited. This case goes back to 1987, the last year Bevilacqua served in the Pittsburgh Diocese. The alleged cover-up involved a local priest giving a young man alcohol and drugs; there was a period of unconsciousness during which the boy may have been sexually abused, and then he eventually made his way to a city hospital. His parents were summoned, told what had happened and advised by medical staff not to report the alleged criminal activity.
When I shared my research on this case years ago, Zappala and his detectives did nothing except blow me off.
My guess is that newspapers from the Philadelphia area with legitimate investigative reporters will break this story first. Zappala and western PA publishers and editors who didn’t follow through on this years ago may be too busy removing egg from their face.
The worst part of this story – Michael Unglo might still be alive if the right people had only done their job.
Click the link below or cut and paste into your browser to view the Michael Unglo Just Be Foundation website.
http://www.justbefoundation.org/
July 28th, 2011 at 10:59 am
Im beyond discomfort. So much time has passed that it doesnt bother me to discuss.
No, never heard of Richard Dorsch. But there was one creep who was at Holy Spirit before Wellinger. I forget his name…but he loved altar boys. If I see the name I would remember it. It was John something….I wonder what happened to him. He seemed to have left abruptly. He used to be an engineer and then came to the priesthood. Weird.
Places in Oakland….yes. Wellinger knew the area intimately and took me to some. Prior to me getting to the hospital that fateful Friday night, he took me on a tour of Oakland one Saturday. I have to think and maybe travel around there to get my perspective again. There were a couple of places he took me to. I have to think about all that but he did take me around the area. During that same Saturday he locked me in a bedroom in the rectory while he held a parish meeting in the living room. I remember waking up with him sitting on the bed stroking my hair….sick!
Wellinger was charsimatic and gained immediate trust with my family. We all met when he was fairly new at one of the parish picnics or some other gathering. He worked my dad first, impressed him; later my mother; then my brother and me. I was last….because I wasnt going anywhere. I was an altar boy and living at home. I also believe he waited until I was 18 purposefully. It wasnt until then, the spring, summer, and fall of 87 that he began his advances. Like many 18 year old boys I drank so he fed me alcohol…lots of it. Justification for his inappropriate behavior; it would also keep the authorities away as I would be considered an adult according to the law. The Saturday he took me on a tour of Oakland and kept me in the rectory I feel certain he slipped me a mickey bc I blacked out and vaguely remembered anything. And then, I know for certain that he drugged me the night I managed to escape his grasp and get to the hospital.
He knew where my brother was living in Oakland and invited himself down for dinner. My brother and I were together that night; we were both students at Pitt. Wellinger came down; we all ate; had some beers; my brother left to meet some friends. Wellinger and I stayed behind. The next thing I remember I was sitiing on the couch as he waved a small bottle under my nose. I later found out is was Rush. Eventually I was flat on my back on my brothers apartment floor, unable to move. Wellinger was kneeling beside me asking me if I was OK. At some point I gained my wits about me and told myself I had to get the hell out of the apartment. I managed to get up and get to the phone and dial 911. Wellinger fought me for the phone as I mumurred something into the phone. I pulled away from his grip and went for the door; stumbled down the steps and out into the street. I could hear Wellinger chasing me and calling my name. Telling me not to go. I waved the abulance down and jumped in. I was scared and panicked at that point.
At the hospital, Wellinger showed up in the ER. I asked him to get the nurse. She came in and I told her that he was the man that did this to me and not to let him in here anymore. Obviously she was shocked.
Wellinger ran out of the hospital parking garage as my parents came in. Wellinger had left my brother a voice mail stating that I had gotten too drunk and went back to my dorm. I explained everything to my parents about what had happened.
That Saturday, my dad posted himself on the grounds of Holy Spirit church. And with that, the neighborhood and most of who we knew began distancing themselves from us. The priest obviously couldn’t have been involved in all this.
Something happened between him and my mom prior to all this or right about this time. All I remember is she went out with him for the day and he didnt drop her off until early the next morning. My mom never confessed to me what happened and I dont know if she said anything to my dad, but it was about this time everything started to unravel for this miscreant. He had really taken advantage of my family. We completely trusted this guy. And sadly, no one did anything and refused to listen.
July 29th, 2011 at 10:06 am
Mertes: When someone wants to talk about sexuality, the leadership begins to fear that it is no longer in control of the debate. It is ultimately the fear of losing power. We ask questions. The answer is a massive silence.
July 29th, 2011 at 10:41 am
By Mike Ference
If Luzerne County is not literally Hell, it is surely a jurisdiction of which Beelzebub would be proud, if not downright jealous.
I’m referring to the kids-for-cash scandal in which two Pennsylvania judges received $2.6 million in kickbacks for sending more than 6,000 pre-teen and teenage children to profit PA Child Care juvenile detention centers in Pittston Township and Butler County.
Sadly, little is being done to address the system-wide corruption that effectively resulted in Pennsylvania children being sold for less than $450 a head. Yes, Judge Michael Conahan plead guilty to several charges as part of a plea bargain, and in February Judge Mark Ciavarella was convicted on 12 counts by a jury. But Pennsylvania’s hellish shortcomings in protecting children are not limited to two “rogue” judges or even the owners and builders of the profiteering detention centers.
We have to ask why so many of these children and their families waved their right to an attorney, and why years went by before pleas for help were heard. It’s hard not to conclude that the system is rigged — intentionally or not — to make such child trafficking easier. Allegations have also been made that the mob was involved, and intimidated both victims and potential whistleblowers to keep quiet.
Whether a group of judges, mob members, business owners and politicians actually sat in the same room hatching this plot or not, something this complex can only be called “organized crime.” And when something this horrific can happen, we have to say — as with the systemic child abuse and cover-ups involving Catholic clergy — that anyone not actively working to fix the system shares in the guilt.
However many years Conahan and Ciavarella serve in jail (if any), the toll on many of the victimized families will go on much longer. In one of the many perverse details of the kids-for-cash scandal, it was revealed that families of the victims were forced to help finance the cost of room and board for their wrongly incarcerated children. Some parents and guardians who could not keep up with payments were also sent to jail. One fellow spent three months in jail and lost his job — while his daughter ultimately spent four years in and out of juvenile detention centers. According to newspaper accounts, the young lady has never recovered from her incarceration. Other affected families lost homes in foreclosure or simply fell apart. At least one wrongly incarcerated young man killed himself. And all will bear the scars and stigma of having “served time.”
The kids-for-cash tragedy is not the only evidence of system-wide corruption in Pennsylvania — not by a long shot. It is an open secret, for example, that organized crime, corrupt elected officials and even members of law enforcement have colluded on everything from protecting abusive priests to allowing illegal drugs to flow into the state’s poorest (and typically African American) communities. The end result? Devastation for individuals, families and entire neighborhoods — and, in a disturbing parallel with the kids-for-cash scandal, a thriving prison industry. In fact, Pennsylvania’s prisons are running at peak capacity and we now export inmates to other state prisons.
One can only guess at the extent of the unholy alliance between the mob, elected officials and other corrupt individuals in Pennsylvania. But anyone paying attention can see the harm and damage the system has done to decent human beings, especially children whose greatest sin, in most cases, was to be born in a place where the devil takes his holiday.
July 29th, 2011 at 8:04 pm
He is only after money.
Cares nothing of putting innocent peoples name out.
Guy needs help
And HO HO HO, fat albert may not have been as fat
August 3rd, 2011 at 7:57 pm
Tell me whose name doesn’t belong in my writings. Tell me the innocent people I’ve wronged. While you’re at it, tell me your last name. Let’s meet, let’s discuss my accusations.
Mike Ference
August 9th, 2011 at 7:35 am
August 10th, 2011 at 8:25 pm
Mike Ference
August 12th, 2011 at 8:09 pm
Mike Ference