Click here to read: “Guilty verdicts in priest sex abuse trial,” by Joseph A. Slobodzian, January 30, 2013
Click here to watch: “Catholic Priest, Teacher Guilty of Abusing Altar Boy,” by Maryclaire Dale, NBC.com, January 30, 2013
Excerpt: “The victim is this case has shown exceptional courage,” said District Attorney Seth Williams. “Not only did he have the strength to report his abuse, he had the tenacity to look his abusers in the eye and testify in front of complete strangers about the horrific details of his attacks. I hope this verdict will help him to continue with the long journey of healing that comes after such trauma.”
AMEN!!!
I hope all of you will now sign my petition to Pres. Obama so that the many other cases, including those involving Rigali’s role and the case Chaput is still apparently sitting on, can be investigated, sooner rather than later. Please go to http://wp.me/P2YEZ3-hv
done!
Thanks, Michelle. We are getting there.
Done!
Done! Hopefully generations of children being “seen and not heard”, as I was raised, will soon be over.
Signed and forwarded!
Signed it. Gladly!
Signed it, Jerry. Thank you.
Thanks, all, for signing. The petition will continue receiving signatures as the horrors of Philly, Los Angeles, and everywhere else are uncovered by bold Catholics like C4C readers have proven to be.
Sooner or later, the President will have to act. Please encourage others to sign it.
Please note Mea Maxima Culpa begins this Monday (2/4) on HBO at 11 p.m. ET. Alex Gibney, who made it, is on Bill Maher tomorrow night at 11 ET, Friday, 2/1. Alex was raised a Catholic. The documentary is painful, but it is not to be missed. The hierarchy is already trying to spin it. FUGGEDABOUTIT !
The truth is prevailing.
Mea Culpa begins on Monday at 9 p.m., not 11 p.m. ET, sorry! As you watch it, please try occasionally to think about what will go through bishops’ minds when they watch it. Of course, they will likely be watching it with their lawyers, and I know how uncomfortable lawyers can make people sometimes. I wonder if Lynn, Avery, Englehardt and Shero will watch it.
These critical Philly convictions are keeping some bishops awake at night. It makes clear jurors are fed up with legal bullying.Thanks again, Billy, for your key role and great courage, and thanks to all the C4C readers who went to the courtroom to support him and others.It all helps.
It is only a matter of time before the bishops get their due. I am convinced of that. They have betrayed Jesus and true believers, especially innocent children like Billy, who trusted them. God will not be mocked! Hopefully, the just outcome will help Billy on his difficult road.
Sorry, again. Bill Maher is at 10 p.m. ET, not 11 p.m.
Thank God!
A victory for all survivors and victims of child sexual abuse.
Thank you to the jurors.
You’re next, Brennan.
Matthew 10:26-27
Amen. Praying for all victims and survivors. Peace.
Sunlight continues to creep into the darkness where enablers and abusers are hiding !
Congratulations to Billy Doe for his courage. Justice has finally been done. May he continue down this long road of recovery from such horrors; and may he take back his life, as the offenders surrender theirs. And kudos to the prosecutors for a job well done.
Well said, Joyce. Thank you, Billy, for your strength and courage. Thank God the jurors were able to see that Billy was the speaker of truth and what a great job the prosecutors did helping to show them that. I pray for Billy, that this may help him to realize the amazing person that he is and that he can live the fulfilling life that he deserves.
I can’t stop thinking about Billy. Thank you for your strength, your bravery, Remarkable man, peace be with you and best always.
I can’t believe this. I gave up hoping. This was very quick too. I am so happy.
I believe it was Engelhardt’s attorney on the news tonight who referenced something to effect of a Roman collar being a bulls eye. Well I disagree,priests are being prosecuted just like the rest of the population accused of crimes. If there was ever a bulls eye..it was on the children of this Archdiocese..for far,far too many years.
I totally agree that the bulls eye was on the children. Of course they will be playing the victims.
Mr. McGovern:
As an advocate for children (and children with disabilities for many years, personally and professionally), I am heartened by today’s criminal court outcomes because it provides evidence of the need to adopt the legislative changes that have been languishing in Harrisburg over the past two legislative sessions. As a life-long Philadelphia Catholic who cherishes my faith, I have no regard for those in Church leadership, both lay and clergy, who defended archdiocesan policies or provided the legal mechanisms to allow such evil and criminal conduct to go on.
In a very strange way, we all should be thanking attorneys like Mark Chopko, who for over 20 years provided legal counsel as bishops built their groundwork of deceit and treachery at the USCCB. Now he joins his colleague, William Sasso, who provided similar cover for Bevilacqua, Rigali and other senior leaders in our archdiocese at Stradley. It is so ironic that without such “legal strategy”, we, as people advocating for the protection of all PA children, would not be where we are today and I mean this in a good way. As each layer of cover-up, hypocrisy and misdirection is uncovered, whether it be in Phila., Milwaukee, Los Angeles, etc (dioceses), more becomes known regarding the conduct and decision-making which was PRO leadership and ANTI children.
So now Mark Chopko is counsel to the Oblates and a couple of years ago in Delaware, he was busy trying to defeat the “windows” legislation in court. I wonder when church attorneys might decide to try a different approach to a problem that seems to go on and on, getting deeper and deeper, more sordid and evil with each passing year. Hell, what do I know……..local organizations recognized William Sasso as an “Innocence Protector” and the other awarded him “Father of the Year.” Hollywood couldn’t write this script, only the devil could.
Whether it’s Penn State, the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts, the Citadel, private schools, local neighborhood sports groups,etc. , we as a society have to improve the way such devastating and criminal behavior is reported, investigated, managed and processed civilly and criminally through the courts.
Best of luck in your endeavors and I’ll keep plugging along with the Ignatian motto of “men for others.” I blame them for my idealism that still is a part of me after 40 years.
Michael Skiendzielewski
(sent via e-mail to Michael McGovern)
I’m glad about the verdict. My heart goes out to the people of St. Jerome’s in NE Phila. It must be humiliating to realize that the AD bosses selected their parish, to send not one, not two, but THREE pedophile rapists to live and work among their children. I hope we hear some reaction from that parish…They were badly used, and have every reason to be outraged.
Kathy,
I think if Christ Himself had walked into that courtroom wearing a roman collar, He too would have been convicted.
Joe, did you see the news out of LA about the 12,000 pages of Church documents that the court ordered to be released? Did you see where the current Archbishop in effect “censured” Cardinal Mahony and Bishop Curry has resigned his position upon the release of the documents? 12,000 pages of court documents, not media documents or law enforcement documents but the Church documents that show the cover up? Mahoney and Curry will never be prosecuted because of the statutes, so priests are far from overly prosecuted. Look at the Philly Archdiocese website of all the priests that have been restricted or laicized…not prosecuted. It is rare these cases even make it to court because of the cover ups. A priest once said to me that he is sick of others blaming the media,blaming law enforcement.. he said “if we didn’t create the situation,they would have nothing to report” . How TRUE that statement is..how true. I don’t think that Jesus would have been convicted if he walked into the courtroom because I don’t think that Jesus would have allowed the crimes against children that have thrived in a secretive culture..but Jesus obviously isn’t running these Dioceses..that much is crystal clear.
Joe another priest also told me the story of his priest friend who was walking down a street wearing his collar and someone yelled out ‘are you a pedophile? The priest said “that is what people think of us” . I responded..”that is on you because you are all sitting in silence..if you were out with the victims or standing up for children maybe people would think differently..but you’re not. You sit in silence. Why not defy the stereotype..take a stand,condemn what has happened to children.console the victims..the silence will only make the stereotype exist. You didn’t hurt a child but it’s not like you are doing anything to help one. So just sit there and feel sorry for yourself and people maybe make assumptions..not a good plan in my book”
Go get ’em, Kathy!!
Joe, Yup. But only if He had serially raped a 5th grader like the other guys wearing roman collars.
The fact is that Christ WAS there in that courtroom and justice prevailed. Most of us are relieved and very pleased about this. I have to wonder why you are not.
Go get ’em, Crystal, too!
Right, Joe. You true colors are showing. A jury of twelve independent citizens found them both guility beyond a reasonable doubt. They had first rate lawyers.
Anyways, Christ has obviously has had little to do with Philly Archdiocesan types like these felons since probably Ben Franklin’s days.
Please wake up, Joe. Kids are depending on all of us.
Joe I was unable to attend court due to personal issues that arised curious if you got a chance to attend the trial? I dont believe Jesus would have been convicted because he would not be able to hide his love and compassion and since he already gave his life for us there would be nothing for him to fear losing……. I love Jesus. I love my faith . The church is being attacked from within and without. Much of the rot is from within I am glad to see it cleaned out so some healing can begin……whatever form that may be….
Hi Beth,
No, I was unable to attend the trial because of illness here at home. But I did follow it in both the newspapers and on Ralph Cipriano’s blog (www.bigtrial.net).
How are things with you since last we spoke?
I am sorry to hear about the illness, Joe. But I am also puzzled. If you didn’t attend the trail, how could you make the gratuitous and provocative comment above about Christ being convicted. Or do you just assume Englehardt and Shero are innocent because they work for the Church and were not videotaped assaulting Billy. Given your ignorance here, your comments are really outrageous. Billy cannot defend himself, so I will.
If there was evidence of abuse and rape of little boys and Christ Himself did walk into the courtroom, Joe, He should be convicted!
MIKE….There are all those other secular places.where pedophiles lurk…but there is nothing worse than men who claim to be “Christos” to the people. whose lives have been. placed. near them., somtimes on a daily basis, such as a child in school..who learned. about his Savior. from this trusted “holy”adult?
And those like Bevilacqua, Law, Mahony, et al., who spent so much time and effort protecting these criminals thereby enabling them to rape more children, but also to rake in more Sunday collections.
I wonder if Jesus intended that we should first drop the millstone on their heads, before we tied it on them to throw them overboard? Do you think bishops wear chains around their necks to make it easier to fasten millstones? Pretty incriminating, don’t you think?
“I wonder if Jesus intended …”
I don’t “wonder” whether Jesus likes those claiming His name consorting, cooperating, having anything to do with Bill Maher! I care not what “excuse” one comes up with— stop running down the name of the Lord! With so many apostates openly [as on NCR] enemies of the cross today, unbelievers may have little time left to come to saving faith in the grace of God.
Spouting pietistic platitudes doesn’t make one holy, Nichols. You do help me understand, though. why bishops have gotten away with so much for so long.
Don’t watch Maher tonight. You can find out what “really happened” on EWTN, so long as you send them a check as well.
Complicity with evil is also evil. Please think hard about that.
Gerald, you said “Complicity with evil is also evil. Please think hard about that.”
Think hard about complicity with a man (Maher) who makes his living scorning the love Jesus Christ has for all. It’s not just about the hierarchy, it’s about the Lord… And His Word being trodden underfoot openly today.
Nichols, watching the maker of Mea Maxima Culpa be interviewed is not endorsing any objectionable position Maher may hold.
Please stick with the Catechism, Nichols. Otherwise, you may just find out you have been brainwashed!
Better you just pay, pray and obey like these criminal bishops expect.
Just what Jesus wanted–sheep. Right. The Good Shepherd story is is a parable for a pastoral society; and not Jesus’ final marching orders.
I close my case!
Cipriano writes that upon hearing Engelhardt’s guilty verdicts in the courtroom, “[his] fellow oblates from the order of Francis DeSales just sat there looking stunned.”
Made me think of this quote: “Sometimes your friends take you ten steps backwards for every step you take forward. Sometimes misplaced loyalty ruins your destiny.” K. Chante
Beautiful, Kate.
Sleep well tonight Billy Doe.
I am pleased for Billy and all of us who are hoping and praying for Justice. Although I know that true justice will not be achieved this side of eternity…Nevertheless, we must do all we can, and thensome.
*Jerry, I have signed the petition.
Arguably, one of the most explosive principles to emerge in the history of Western philosophy was John Locke’s idea that the confidence we have in our beliefs needs to relate to the evidence that exists in there support. So many established beliefs in the religious and social life of his time were supported by little more than Church authority and blind fidelity to it and its clerics. Faith, fidelity, loyalty, fear, ignorance, and human neediness superseded reason.
In a comment made by an NCR blogger to a story on yesterday’s guilty verdicts in Philly, the blogger writes, “this is organized crime.” Period. End of conversation. The recent Philly trial evidenced organized crime. But name a priest sexual abuse trial, or priest sexual abuse investigation, in any country in the world, that has not evidenced organized crime? The magnitude of the evidence is real and mind-boggling.
Still, there are Catholics whose minds, emotions, and consciences cannot ascend to the truth of the evidence.
To be Catholic is to be complicated. But to permit anything to supersede reason is a human abomination, a horror and a shame that taints the person, Catholicism, and, indeed, mankind… a human failure that one will have to answer to in the next life.
Kate……great comment and presentation. That is why I cannot understand that our local Catholic universities are so quiet in spite of the evidence, documents, reality, decision-making of the leadership, etc. that simply cannot be denied. For whatever the reason, this writer has continued to share information, evidence, legislative proposals re child protection, etc. with St. Joseph’s University management and members of the Board of Trustees and they say NOTHING in reply. As you indicated, “the magnitude of the evidence is real and mind-boggling” and institutions of higher-learning can certainly recognize this fact (a mountain of evidence) and yet INDIVIDUALS CHOOSE to look the other way, ignore the reality and cling to their false understandings, institutional loyalties and failed leadership.
Yes indeed, “to be Catholic is to be complicated” and what is needed is for SJU to be true to the Ignatian philosophy of “men for others.” Of course, in this instance, it is even more vital to our Catholic and Christian faith and education to be “men for children.” This principle is what matters to all of us and not how far the campus of SJU extends and the size of campus real estate. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world …………????
Mike,
Catholic colleges and universities are pawns and puppets to a totalitarian regime in Rome, a regime hell-bent on silencing scholarly voices that assuredly, if unleashed, would further illuminate the Church’s engagement in a child sexual abuse holocaust, and would articulate its evil and immorality. While “denial,” “cover up,” and “child sexual abuse” are words that normally incite an academic, motivating him or her to speak and act, what you are seeing are academics who are more incited by the prospect of losing their jobs, their positions, their paychecks, their reputations and/or being excommunicated from the Church. They are hardly “men (or women) for others.” Nor are they men or women for the children. Rather, they are men and women for themselves in an institutional climate of fear, obedience, and mandated silence.
Kate, your reply is very helpful and insightful. Yeah, this naive writer actually believes there should be a flood of initiative, advocacy, spirit and Christian zeal for justice in response to the horror of sexual abuse of our children. You’ve heard of the movie, “All Quiet on the Western Front.” The sequel has just been released “All Quiet at 54th and City Ave”.
Kate and Mike: I have tried over the past three years to engage by e-mail, calmly, several dozen “scholars” at Catholic universitites. Few replied, and fewer still showed any independence.
Having gone to 16 years of Catholic schools and having represented as lawyer a Catholic religious publisher, I wasn’t surprised. But with kids’ lives at stake, I was very disappointed.
I got a much more encouraging and Christian reply from Oxford’s Anglican renowned church historian, Sir Diarmaid MacCulloch.
Locke was right, Kate. Now we must “Locke” up all the complicit bishops.
Seth Williams just said he was surprised with the “Billy” verdict. DUH? Seth for Mayor, another DUH? He also once again apparently failed to mention his favorite Eminence, Cardinal Rigali. A third DUH?
Once more, FUHGEDABOUTIT ! Long live Billy!!!
If one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected-those, precisely, who need the law’s protection most!-and listens to their testimony.
I read the 2011 Grand Jury Report. I begged others to read it. I protested the Catholic Church’s handling of predator priests for 9 hours outside of the Archdiocese headquarters the day the GJR was released. I walked around St. Jerome’s in NE Philly and alerted the community of the tragedy that had occurred inside those buildings and some people dismissed me and others agrued my presence there. I listened to “Billy Doe’s” testimony during the first trial, which convicted Msgr. Lynn.
I knew they were all guilty, because I believed what I read in the GJR and I always believed Billy. I’m damn proud of that kid too!
Four scumbags down, one to go.
V4J,
“Four scumbags down, one to go.”
That sums it up perfectly!
God Bless Billy. I believe him and all the survivors.
Thank you, Billy. My heart has been in the courtroom these past weeks, praying for truth and justice. You are leading the way for all victims. God bless you and all who were there to share their love and support.
If anyone has noticed the national news — have the verdicts in Philly been receiving wide coverage, or any at all? I have been on a “news diet” recently , so I don’t know.
nichols1,
I’ve seen very little coverage. Pervert priests going to prison are becoming common place (non-News?). At least the tide has turned, and we’re getting convictions, if not press. Praise the Lord!
It’s very ironic – if the jury found the defendants NOT GUILTY, Billy would have kept the label of liar, drug addict, etc. The priest and Shero would have kept their image. Billy, a child victim, now had enough in him to go against great odds and bring down 4 “respected” men. The power these men had was gone IN AN INSTANT. If it was not for Billy, none of this would have happened. So, this 5th grade rape victim was able to bring them all down. This is very difficult to comprehend. Because this happened, I certainly hope future juries will believe the victims. This is such a major accomplishment. Thank you Billy.
Thank you, Susan. Very incisive and very well put. You make it even clearer what we all owe Billy.
God bless all of the “Billy’s” out there, but particularly this one who’s bravery and courage, gave a voice to so many. The times are changing and the walls are beginning to fall. A part of me wants to give some credit to God, and what’s left of my beliefs, but the people and their strength and tenacity is what I truly believe is bringing down this house of cards.
Thank you Billy.
“Engelhardt was ordered to leave this parish when the archdiocese was notified of sexual abuse allegations against him on Jan. 30, 2009. He was found to still be at the parish doing office work in Dec. 2010. The archdiocese told news sources that they “intervened and it ended.”
”
http://www.bishopaccountability.org/assign/Engelhardt_Charles_F_osfs.htm
Resurrection of Our Lord is that parish a few miles from St Jeromes
: When an Oblate is alleged to have abused a young person, what happens?
A: Anytime an allegation of sexual abuse is made against an Oblate, that man is removed from ministry until an investigation is conducted. If the information gathered shows that he is guilty of the abuse, he is permanently removed from public ministry as a priest or brother.
Since we Oblates are members of a religious community, we are responsible to provide housing for all of our men, whether they are in active ministry, retired, or infirmed. In a similar fashion, we provide for our men who are guilty of abuse. Presently, they are assigned to an Oblate community that is not attached to a public ministry of the church.
http://www.oblates.org/healing/provincial_faq.php
Still waiting to hear the sentence, don’t need another judge giving a sentence like Behan received.
Read too much BS from the lawyers. The jury saw through the BS and convicted. They saw Billy as a ten year victim and understood the effect of what these abusers did. Ten years old and had to experience hell on earth and we are suppose to fell sorry for those(priests) who support his abusers because they have a bulleye on them. Read bishopaccountability.org about Phily priests and the Oblates, maybe there is a reason people mistrust their priests..