A lot of us who have been observing the Scandal from the beginning have been saying that rather than re-assign irreformable molesting priests to parishes, bishops should have been sending them off to monasteries for a life of prayer and solitude. But, in Oakland, California, it seems even that isn’t welcome among those who want to bring the whole Church down.
The Dominican priory, which also doubles as the provincial headquarters, is housing seven Dominicans who have had credible accusations of sexual abuse made against them. None of them has been convicted of a crime or is required to register as a sex offender. They have been living there quietly for some time. But not any more. The victims’ group SNAP (Surivivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests) began leafletting the neigborhorhood around the seminary six months ago, “warning” the neighbors about the 7 priests. That’s created a huge uproar, including demands the priests be moved out.
I don’t understand what these people want the Church to do. Okay, the neigbors are just simply advocates of NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard), but what’s the deal with SNAP and uber-plaintiff’s attorney Jeffrey Anderson?
A HUG uproar??? That is an interesting response!
I’ve been among those recommending a monastery for abusers. I still do. Not all monasteries are located in neighborhoods. I seem to recall reading one article that indicated a school was near this particular monastery. Doesn’t the order have a better choice of location?
The superior of these abusers said that they were “delightful” men who had done something “foolish” – like rape a child.
Abusers are almost always con men ? that is how they get access to children and persuade the child to have sex. It looks like they have conned their superior. This does not fill me with confidence about his ability to supervise them.
If the Dominicans had confidence in what they wee doing was right, why did they try to conceal it?
Also, my perusal of thousands of pages of court documents and newspaper stories has given me the strong suspicion that there were not just isolated abusers and rings of abusers, but a nationwide network. Until all the abusers are removed from positions of trust in the church, the network can?t be disrupted and will resume its activities once the public turns its attention elsewhere.
I’m curious. How does a life of prayer and solitude equate to “positions of trust in the church”?
Also, Lee? Your URL doesn’t work.
Kelly,
There are really 3 parts to it.
1) A Life of prayer and solitude is a proper penitential response to such an awful act as the seduction &/or rape of a child. These men should be what we used to call penitents. Penance after such an act is what it takes to get past it…just like penance coming out of the confessional is…. This means solitude and non-participation in the outward acts of the order.
2) And if the Church, through the order (and the Church is what gets the order its funds, directly or indirectly), pays these mens’ livings, then they have a right to understand that something besides partying is going on. This is simply justice done to the church.
3) And lastly, men in lives of penitential silence and seclusion are not only NOT choosing the friars and priests of the next generation, they are not doing a lot of things.
……corrupting more children by continuing what they’ve been doing. (Obviously guilt has not stopped them up to this point…..)
……corrupting the young men of the order with further antics
……choosing homosexuals to come into the order while harassing non-homosexuals out
……engaging in the activities of the homosexual networks that exist in the American priesthood
That’s spelling it out, but maybe that’s necessary.
Oh, and men in lives of solitary penance for their sins (penitents) do not accept positions of influence, power and trust. Because since they are in penance for their sins, they know that they cannot be trusted with them. It’s just that simple. They rely on the grace of God alone.
It is possible to become quite holy in the course of living a penitential life. This is not so much a punishment as an acknowledgement of weakness and an appropriate reliance on God. These men have the grace of clearly understanding what would, if they let it, keep them out of heaven.
SNAP will settle for nothing short of a position of authority in the Church. Their agenda is akin to CTA/VOTF and the rest of that ilk.
Clohessy the advocate surfaced about 10 years ago as a ‘victim’ though he cannot and will not describe explicitly how he was ‘abused’. It seems to have been a ‘suppressed memory’ experience that, “with much ‘therapy’ he recalled the abuse”. He has a brother who is a priest living under suspension of faculties, due to pending molestation of minors charges.
When he was last interviewed in the St Louis Post-Dispact he acknowledged that he cannot hold a job- he does have a wife and children – and was relieved of his last position. As to how he manages to be at the forefront of every breaking scandal he admitted he ‘relies on ‘friends’ for his expenses.’ Full of descriptive adjectives, when pressed what SNAP wants from the Church he refuses to be specific. The vague responses proves to me that he is little more than a bs artist and a lug.