This is too weird. A self-admitted child molester who was laicized at his own request, but was involved with a Catholic ministry with ties to many different dioceses in the US was arrested in Haiti, where he was being visited by the notoriously heterodox Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, on charges he had assisted in a jailbreak, according to the Dallas Morning News. Ron Voss also gets kudos from the Maine-based liberal group Pax Christi. Voss runs youth programs in Haiti, by the way, even though he admitted in his own words: “My sins are too numerous to detail, but the most grievous gather around the sexual abuse of many adolescent boys, including some minors.”
Where is the criminal investigation? And why did the Diocese of Lafayette, Indiana, tell victims groups that Voss was not accused of molesting boys?
I wonder how well the Lafayetter diocese did in the recent US bishops’ audit for compliance with the Dallas policy.
Just a thought, and it might be worth nothing at all, but Haiti is the voodoo capital of the world. Voodoo is linked to satanism, and satanism is often associated with the defilement of children.
Dear Dom,
Ummm, to ask your question, based upon the article, perhaps when Lafayette notified the charity, Voss was not accused. From the article:
“Mr. Voss, who was never criminally charged, ended the interview after being asked whether he had apologized to his victims.”
He wasn’t charged, but he admitted to molesting kids when he asked to be laicized. He couldn’t have started working for the charity as a layperson until he was dismissed from the clerical state, by which time he had made his admission.
I’m imagining this response from some bureaucrat:
“Well, of course he really wasn’t accused of molesting boys. We in the chancery didn’t accuse him, and the state didn’t charge him. Rather, he volunteered it on his own as part of his petition to leave! So what appears in that letter is absolutely one hundred percent accurate!”
Interesting how all these “liberals” are popping up in interesting contexts…Gumbleton, Weakland….
Reminds me of the strange places Bernardin used to show up in…….