Click here to read: “Kane: Three clergy leaders enabled predator friar,” by Maria Panaritis, The Philadelphia Inquirer, updated March 15, 2016.
Excerpt:
“These men knew there was a child predator in their organization. Yet they continued to put him in positions where he had countless opportunities to prey upon children,” Attorney General Kathleen Kane said in announcing the charges. “Their silence resulted in immeasurable pain and suffering for so many victims. These men turned a blind eye to the innocent children they were trusted to protect.”
Each of the three is retired and lives out of state but will come to Pennsylvania for court appearances in the coming days, Kane said. They face a maximum of seven years in prison. Their attorneys did not immediately respond to calls for comment.
Editor’s Note:
Does anyone think a maximum of seven years is appropriate for allowing children to be sexually abused?
Seven years is nothing! Not when it takes 34 years to heal what they have done to you. I knew the Rev. Cletus Adams very well. My perp, Fr. Basil lynch TOR was his superior when he taught at Bishop Conwell. I know a lot about him, extremely arrogant. Physically and emotionally abusive. You would think after I sued the Franciscan order and won, they would have learned from their “mistake”. So many of these priests from this order who taught at my High School were pointed out by the 2 Detectives who came to interview me. I never cared for him. Kept my distance, thank God.
Seven years is a gift to the abuser. But I guess its better then that punishment of a lifetime of prayer and penance that so many of us had to learn what happened to our abuser. Seven years for committing murder of the mind and soul.
Personally, it’s profoundly satisfying to me that female Attorney General Kane snared the boys.
Makes you think how much better the catholic church could be ran if there was a woman in there watching over the all boys club. My vote is for Susan.
A maximum of seven years is a pittance, especially considering there may be time off for good behavior, and who knows what else. There’s probably some technicality where convictions could be challenged, or overturned, as Lynn’s was. I will believe conviction and imprisonment when I see it, minus any clever wordsmithing about who is a responsible supervisor or not..
Only two percent of perpetrators have been criminally prosecuted. Meanwhile, hearty congratulations to AG Kane.
I am not a believer – I have forgotten more about Christianity than most present day believers think they know. The Faith does not belong to the local priest, city cardinal nor even to the Vatican. It belongs to the People. “Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am also.” This site of handwringing may bring some peace and support, but it will never bring justice. Justice will only come when the seat of power and male control is wrested from their hands. Until that happens there will be no justice and no CHANGE. Power never wants change – it wants the status-quo. It will continually fight change – as it has for 2,000 years. Revolt in the pews, refusal to attend church, refusal to add to the collection box, are the only ways change can come to this 2,000 year old doddering organization and bring the men in the Vatican to their Knees – to their knees to atone, to confess, and to CHANGE. And as with governance, employment, and the Suffragette Movement, real CHANGE will come only when women have their rightful place in the Pulpit and the Vatican.
Reid, Agree with you. I hold no hope that the reforms you mention above will ever happen. The kool-aid tastes to good.!
absolutely not
Are these child rape facilitators still on altars? Hearing Confessions? Seven years for intentionally putting kids at risk in the most heinous way and in the name of Our Lord. Out here in San Francisco when Cardinal William Levada was archbishop, he admitted under oath that he knew Rev. Gregory Ingels was a pedophile since 1996 and yet appointed him as Chancellor, chief canon lawyer, and then in 2002 appointed Ingels to establish sex abuse policies for the entire nation. Of course these Franciscans would allow Baker to continue in his treacherous career. They were all following Levada’s lead, paid attention as Levada was given a promotion to the Vatican as #2. They fancied themselves as transubstantiators, and therefore above civil and criminal law. They still do.
AW
The truth of the matter is that there are Schinellis, D’Aversas and Criscitellis in EVERY religious order and dioceses/archdiocese in the country. If a cleric is not one of them, he is a cleric who has done nothing about them. There you have it. The perverted, unprincipled, loyally-in-cohoots priesthood in a nutshell.
I am extremely thankful for the work of AG Kane and others across the country who have revealed the crimes and sins of the Schinellis, D’Aversas and Criscitellis. But revealing all of them is clearly not likely, and the clerics who have done nothing about them have not been properly condemned for their deplorable, dishonorable and repugnant silence. All in all, the priesthood, itself, has not paid the price for being the evil, the blight, and the scourge of Catholicism.
The priesthood must end. It must be dismantled, torn down, destroyed, and buried in its entirety. To think that it could be reformed or reinvented from within or without amounts to turning a blind eye to the immeasurable devastation it has left in its path and a deaf ear to those who have been violated, wounded, damaged, rendered confused, and rendered faithless, . Some things have to go and have to be destroyed because it’s all they merit.
The good people of the Church are fully able to articulate how the faith will live post-priesthood.