Recent articles remind us why we’re here

Some recent excellent posts by Terence regarding the sex-abuse scandal serve as a reminder of the impetus which set the majority of still-practicing Catholics on the road to demanding reform.  Three other articles have also brought home the vile corruption which still has a strangle-hold on the institution. 

At this past weekend’s Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) conference, District Attorney Phillip A. Koss who prosecuted the once-popular Jesuit, Daniel McGuire, related the following: (In fact, I would recommend reading  all of Heidi Schlumpf’s excellent reports on this event in the National Catholic Reporter.)

* Parishioners wrote thousands of letters of support that filled a thick file (“like a phone book, and not an Elkhorn [Wisconsin] phone book, but a Chicago one!”). Some of those very letter-writers learned later that their own children had been abused, Koss said.

* McGuire’s supporters tailed the two victims throughout the trial, hoping to catch them saying something that would exonerate the priest. They even followed the victims to the bathroom, to their cars, and stood outside the DA’s office while Koss met with them, he said.

* The Jesuit province’s attorney assured Koss there were no other victims out there, but then turned over 4,889 pages of documents during the appeal, which showed the order’s suspicions about McGuire for a long time.

Rev.  Henry Willenborg was suspended from ministry in October 2009 over allegations he molested a teenage girl years ago. The New York Times had disclosed that Willenborg seduced and impregnated a young woman twice, urged her to have an abortion, then ignored his son for over twenty years. The same article noted yet another woman who claimed Willenborg abused her when she was in high school.

Since October, all of the relevant church officials have been silent about Willenborg’s whereabouts, status, and their supposed investigation. These include bishops in Wisconsin and Illinois, and Willenborg’s direct supervisors in a St. Louis-based religious order called the Franciscans. SNAP says it doesn’t know of a single person who’s been contacted by church officials about Willenborg, and hasn’t seen a single sign of any public outreach, like news releases, ads, letters to current or former church members or employees.

 Finally, we have the story of  Rev. Patrick Umberger resigning as pastor of a Wisconsin parish this past weekend after his arrest on July 14th for possession of child pornagraphy.  “His personal website, from which he conducted an online ministry serving more than 8,500 people worldwide, has been shut down” and he also resigned as chaplain of a middle shool.  

No, it never ends.