Questions for Archbishop Nelson Perez

In the spirit of transparency and accountability that Archbishop Perez promises from the Trust and Hope campaign, the following are questions/concerns from laity, parents, clergy, and survivors.

1.Why has the Archdiocese of Philadelphia been rebranded to the new name of the Catholic Church of Philadelphia?

2. Why is the Archdiocese of Philadelphia the only diocese in the U.S. to include a legal preamble with their Standards of Ministerial Behavior and Boundaries which absolves the Archdiocese of responsibility? Most dioceses begin their Standards with a prayer for child protection, not a legal preamble.

3. In 2021 you moved into a 6,709 square foot, six bedroom, four bathroom residence. What money was used to pay for the renovations? While many of your peers in other dioceses have in recent years drastically downscaled their living arrangements, you have instead upgraded. Why did you not choose a more prudent choice and simply move into a vacant bedroom at a local rectory? Who is it that you host at your large private residence that such accommodations are looked at as impressive rather than unnecessary? While local children have hosted lemonade stands and bake sales for safety and building improvements at their parish schools. Shouldn’t you be leading a more modest lifestyle by example?

4. Will you sell the private residence to kick off the billion dollar Archdiocese fundraising campaign that will be announced in 2026?

5. Why have you ignored Arthur Baselice’s request for a meeting for an entire year? Arthur is the father of a beloved son who died as a result of being a victim of a sexual predator priest at an Archdiocesan high school. Why do you continue to ignore his request for a meeting when Pope Leo has recently stated that need for pastoral care for survivors and families. Is ignoring a bereaved father an appropriate pastoral response? Or a legal response?

6. In November 2020, in the midst of a global pandemic and concern about the psychological well being of our youth, the Archdiocese announced that both John W Hallahan Catholic Girls’ High School and Bishop McDevitt High School would close. This was announced only two months after bringing in a freshman class to both schools . Do you think this instills confidence for people to enroll their children in Archdiocesan high schools knowing that the freshman at these schools were brought in and then the abrupt announcement of the closures? Is there a more ethical and compassionate way for school closures such as announcing the closures a few years prior and allowing the current students to graduate starting with the sophomores and not bringing in a freshman class? Why are our youth such a second hand thought? Under Middle States accreditation guidelines the parents are stakeholders in the institution. All financial and enrollment issues should be addressed with the school community on a yearly basis. Will you follow Middle States guidelines for future school closings?

7.Why did you allegedly promote and install a priest as pastor of a parish during a sex abuse investigation before the case was sent to the Review Board? We have offered to meet with Dan Cellucci of Catholic Leadership Institute and Brian McCarthy of the Trust and Hope Campaign to share the documentation that has been provided to us about this case. The priest was allegedly found to have credibly violated the Standards of Behavior and Boundaries in the sex abuse case. Why is any clergy with a credible violation of the Standards promoted to a leadership/pastor role at a parish?

8. Why do you allow priests who have been charged with crimes to reside at local rectories? Also what are your thoughts on clergy allowing credibly accused sexual abusive clergy to reside at their private residences? What are your thoughts on Philly priests socializing, dinner and drinks, with removed sexual predator priests? (photos that are posted to social media) Do you also socialize with removed sexual predator priests?

9. Why do you, as Archbishop, preside at the funerals of credibly removed sexual predator priests? Other dioceses have implemented funeral protocol for abusive priests that are much more sensitive to the victims of sexual abuse while also providing a funeral for the deceased.

10. Why does the Archdiocese allow priests who are under secret investigation for sexual abuse to have access to children/students? This differs greatly from other dioceses where all investigations are publicly announced in a diocesan statement and the priest is placed on administrative leave. Many dioceses have even gone a step further and placed priests on administrative leave while being investigated for violations of the Standards (boundary violations). It keeps kids safe during an investigation and allows others with relevant information to come forward. It makes for both better safety and a better investigation. Why does the Archdiocese of Philadelphia continue to be different than other dioceses by keeping investigations hidden?

11. Why has Catholic Philly taken a step backward with transparency? In 2018 when Msgr. McLoone was arrested and charged with theft from St Joseph Parish it was detailed in great length in Catholic Philly. The recent arrest of Fr Kozak on similar theft charges was not mentioned at all, with no article or acknowledgement. Is the promised transparency actually moving in the wrong direction?

12. Why have the Archdiocese of Philadelphia Child Protection Policies and Standards of Ministerial Behavior and Boundaries not been updated in many years? As a community Catholics4Change has provided child protection suggestions, policy, and examples. It has been 15 years of advocacy for the children in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and is ignored. Bishop Michael Burbidge in the Arlington diocese has initiated child protection policy in his diocese that we have been told for years is not possible in Philadelphia. Why? Why has he taken a lead for the children in his care that does not happen here in Philadelphia? Why is the hierarchy in Philadelphia complacent about child protection?

13. Why weren’t you and the auxiliary bishops more frequently present at the Trust and Hope listening sessions? If this campaign is about the future of the church in Philadelphia then what could be more important?

14.Why was a young priest who taped pornographic podcasts still used as a recruiting tool for the seminary for weeks after Catholics4Change alerted the Archdiocese to the sexual and violent podcast content? Why was his recruiting video not immediately removed from the website? Why were parishioner/parent questions to the Archdiocese about the priest given the typical Archdiocesan spin and not honest answers?

15. In the Trust and Hope Campaign, the 83% of non attendees are often referred to as needing to return to Jesus. The 83% have not turned into atheists and left Christ. People have left because many of the Archdiocese’s practices do not reflect the Gospel. A moral and ethical issue is being given a marketing solution with expensive drone shots of the Cathedral and the Archbishop trailed by a photographer. Who decided that a marketing campaign would fix a moral issue?

16. Many parents left and removed their children for the safety issues documented in thousands of pages of Grand Jury reports. While the leaders of the Trust and Hope Campaign seem oblivious to the years of child rape and sexual violation of innocent bodies, the informed laity are not. How are the leaders of the Trust and Hope effort to be held accountable if the children /families they are recruiting to return are harmed in some way? Are you as Archbishop alerting them to the ethical and possible liability issues they face? Or are you using their deference to you as an advantage? Are you also misleading donors who you are recruiting to the effort?

The issue of child protection in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia remains at a critical stage. At the Trust and Hope campaign listening session that I attended, I asked the Trust and Hope moderator what research he had conducted about the Archdiocese child protection issues before he took the job of recruiting families to return with their children. His answer was a honest and shocking. He had done absolutely no research on the subject. Also, emails that we have sent the team about child protection with exact examples of the issues have gone unanswered. Brian McCarthy responds to questions about the Trust and Hope Campaign efforts, but no longer acknowledges the child protection emails. A zoom meeting with Brian initially seemed promising, but no follow up on the issues in one year. Dan Cellucci seems to believe that all child protection issues were resolved under Archbishop Chaput. The team did not seem to do their due diligence before kicking off a billion dollar recruiting effort. The youth that they are recruiting remain at risk. What is your responsibility as Archbishop to be honest with the members of the Trust and Hope team as well as the donors? What is your responsibility to act as Bishop Burbidge has and make child protection a priority?

Some information for those new to our blog site. In 2018, former Senator George Mitchell was named by Archbishop Charles Chaput to chair the Oversight Committee of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia IRRP program. The committee was tasked with evaluating the child protection policies of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Mitchell left his position on the committee in 2019 after being publicly linked to the Epstein files. He denies any wrongdoing. I had two conference calls with the remaining members of the Oversight Committee . Three years into their work, in September 2021,they asked me where they could locate the Standards of Ministerial Behavior and Boundaries. They were clueless. They issued a very brief report in April 2022 that was basically a stamp of approval of the Archdiocese. The children of the Archdiocese continue to be failed over and over.

All questions for Archbishop Perez can be messaged to Catholics4Change in our contact link on the website or messaged through our Facebook page. Also feel free to reach out at kmkane242@gmail.com. We will be happy to add additional questions to the post. Thank you to everyone who has contributed with their concerns and questions.