September-23-2018-Bulletin-1.Pdf
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St. Joseph’s Church Yorkville 404 East 87 th Street New York NY 10128 212-289-6030 Tel 212-348-8075 Fax Website: www.stjosephsyorkville.org September 23, 2018 Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time was a breach of the confidentiality of the process. When I discussed this with a friend who was the archbishop of Louisville, Thomas C. Kelly, he told me that there was nothing I could do, and that “we all know” that McCarrick had picked up a flight attendant at an airport. That flight attendant was the man whose expulsion I had backed; I understood that the “we” of “we all know” were the American bishops. In November 2000, on hearing that McCarrick had been made archbishop of Washington, a position that WHAT I SAID LAST WEEK guaranteed that he would become a cardinal, I wrote a Last weekend I spoke at all the Masses about the letter to the papal nuncio, Archbishop Montalvo, who crisis in the Church that has been caused by the sexual was the Vatican ambassador to the United States, abuse perpetrated by members of the clergy. My talk saying that, because of McCarrick’s extremely took as its starting point the misdeeds of ex-Cardinal inappropriate behavior with his seminarians, he should Theodore McCarrick, former archbishop of Newark and not be advanced to the prestigious diocese of Washington, and my reason for homing in on McCarrick Washington. After calling the nuncio to tell him to expect was the fact that I was aware of his behavior and tried my letter, I spoke with a friend, a priest of the several times—unsuccessfully—to stop him by reporting archdiocese of Newark, who told me that McCarrick him to the authorities. would inevitably hear of the letter and retaliate against A Chronology me. With that, I decided not to send the letter. I called the nuncio a second time and told him that I had From the late 1980s until 1996 I was a professor at changed my mind, but he insisted that I send the letter, Immaculate Conception Seminary, which served the archdiocese of Newark, during the time when McCarrick which I did. I never got an acknowledgement. However, was archbishop of Newark. Early in my tenure at in October 2006 I received a letter from Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, at that time an assistant secretary of Immaculate Conception I heard rumors about what we state at the Vatican and now a cardinal, which referred would now refer to as sexual harassment or abuse of to my letter to the nuncio. This meant that, despite the power—that McCarrick would invite five seminarians to his beach house on the Jersey Shore and, because lack of an acknowledgement, the nuncio had not only there were only five beds, one of them was always received my letter but had forwarded it to the Vatican. Thus, McCarrick’s sexual misbehavior was known in the obliged to share McCarrick’s bed. After deciding that the Vatican. rumors had merit, I went to the seminary rector and Meanwhile, in July 2004, during the course of a complained. He promised to do something about this, lengthy conversation with Cardinal Edward Egan, then but regardless of what he might have done, McCarrick continued to invite seminarians to his beach house and archbishop of New York, I raised the subject of to behave in the same way. McCarrick’s conduct. It was immediately evident to me from Egan’s reaction that he both knew what I was In the early 1990s, as a member of the voting faculty talking about and did not want to discuss the matter of the seminary who voted on the advancement of further. This of course added to my realization that the seminarians, I spearheaded a drive to expel a American bishops were well aware of McCarrick’s seminarian whose behavior was abusive towards another seminarian. Several months later, after that behavior. seminarian was expelled, I learned that McCarrick had In June 2015, while attending Cardinal Egan’s funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, I was dismayed to see fired me from the voting faculty because, as I that McCarrick was one of the concelebrants, along with discovered, I had voted against a person with whom many cardinals and bishops. This seemed very brazen McCarrick was intimate. Clearly McCarrick had been told by someone in the seminary how I had voted, which on his part. How could the other bishops, who were aware of McCarrick’s misdeeds, accept him into their midst? I then wrote a long letter to Cardinal Sean Justice must be meted out in keeping with the legal O’Malley, archbishop of Boston, detailing what I knew adage, “Let justice be done even if the heavens should about McCarrick. I chose O’Malley because he was fall,” in other words, let justice be done on behalf of the particularly responsible for the protection of minors from victims even if the institution has to pay a heavy price. sexual abuse. O’Malley’s secretary replied and said that In meting out justice, laypeople should have a decisive what was expressed in my letter did not fall under role. O’Malley’s purview. (During this past summer O’Malley Any consequences for criminal or inappropriate said that the letter should have been shown to him and behavior on the part of bishops should be easily that he regretted not having seen it, and he apologized understandable to people who are not versed in the to me via a public statement.) ways of the Vatican. (Cardinal Law’s removal from In June 2018 The New York Times published a Boston to Rome, for example, was seen by most people lengthy article revealing that credible allegations of child as a promotion, or at least a lateral move, when in fact abuse had been leveled against McCarrick. I then the Vatican probably viewed it as a demotion.) Bishops contacted The Times and recounted what I knew about have to be treated just like anyone else when it comes to his abuse of seminarians. Consequently another lengthy criminal acts. A good first step would be for Pope article on that topic was published in The Times in July Francis to strip McCarrick of his priesthood. 2018. The result has been a heated debate about how The argument that the Catholic Church has been McCarrick was able to rise to the cardinalate when so pursued by the media more than any other institution— many American bishops, and even functionaries in the like synagogues or public schools, for example—is Vatican, knew that McCarrick had a long history of irrelevant. If our own house is dirty, it matters little sexual harassment of seminarians. The report of the whether anyone else’s is. Even so, although it may be Pennsylvania district attorney on the sexual abuse of true that the media’s focus on the Church is especially minors in several Pennsylvania dioceses, issued after acute (and there are various understandable reasons for the revelations about McCarrick, only served to that), they often shine their spotlight on other institutions exacerbate the matter. too. The crisis in the Church has brought to the surface in Comments some quarters an antagonism and hostility toward gay It is clear that McCarrick’s behavior, like that of many people that is unjustified and certainly un-Christian. well-known personalities in Hollywood and elsewhere, Provocative talk of a “lavender mafia” or an active was an open secret. That seminarians were invited to homosexual network in the Church, even if there is some his beach house and shared his bed was widely known truth in it, risks maligning a whole set of people, beyond the seminary and beyond Newark. The bishops, including many gay priests, who are completely innocent who were the ones best placed to confront him about of any homosexual activity and certainly of engaging in this, seem to have done nothing. (His alleged abuse of the sexual abuse of minors. minors, which was not known until this summer, is another issue.) A Personal Note The bishops’ responses to the revelations about Many people have said that I was courageous in McCarrick, and to the sexual crisis generally, are often trying to bring McCarrick’s behavior with seminarians to seen as inadequate and self-serving. It is odd that none the attention of the Church authorities, so that they of the bishops have contacted me, given my prolonged would do something about it. I am grateful for that involvement in trying to bring McCarrick’s misdeeds to thought and for all the support that I have received from light. my parishioners and from others. But I don’t think of As a result of my exposure in the media, several myself as having been courageous; instead, I was angry victims of abuse have been in touch with me, and hence at what McCarrick got away with over the course of I have gained a better understanding of what child abuse years and years, and that his behavior did not prevent can do to a person. Frequently children abused by him from being named a cardinal; I was bewildered at priests simply cannot tell anyone of what they have gone the fact that his behavior was widely known and that through; if they speak to their parents, for example, they nothing was done about it by the people who could have are often disbelieved or told to be silent. Some victims, done something about it; and I was tenacious in my perhaps most victims, never recover; they are haunted personal mission to expose a sexual harasser who was throughout their lives by what they have experienced, eventually exposed as a child molester as well.