College Outraged N.Y. Archdiocese Approved Visiting Priest under Abuse

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This is so sadly typical. One office pays out a settlement while another office issues a letter saying the priest is in good standing.

The Church is never going to see the end of the scandals if it doesn’t start acting in an upright manner. But apparently “upright” and “Catholic” don’t belong in the same sentence.
 
Absolute non-sense that this type of thing is still occurring!

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NY archdiocese issued suitability letter for priest under abuse investigation​

by Ed Condon

New York City, N.Y., Dec 28, 2018 / 05:39 pm (CNA).- The Archdiocese of New York told a California college this month that a local priest had never been accused of sexual abuse, even while the priest was being investigated by the archdiocese for several abuse charges. An administrator at the college called the letter “a lie,” and said she can no longer trust assurances from the archdiocese.

On Dec. 4, the New York archdiocese issued a letter stating “without qualification” that Fr. Donald Timone had “never been accused of any act of sexual abuse or misconduct involving a minor.”

In fact the archdiocese first received in 2003 an allegation that the priest had sexually abused minors, and it reached settlements with alleged victims in 2017.

The archdiocesan letter was received Dec. 13 by John Paul the Great University in Escondido, California, where Timone served. . . .

. . . “. . . New York never told us anything about [the allegations] against him,” Connolly said. . . .

. . . “What do these letters of suitability and good standing mean if they say there’s never been an allegation and there clearly have been?” Connolly asked.

“Does this mean we can no longer have priests come visit from New York? At the moment the archdiocese’s word means nothing.”

The Dec. 4 letter was signed by New York’s archdiocesan director of priest personnel, Msgr. Edward Weber. . . .

. . . The letter also attests that Timone has “never been involved in an incident which called into question his fitness or suitability.”

In 2017, the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program paid settlements in response to substantiated allegations that Timone had sexually abused two teenage boys, one of whom eventually committed suicide.

A spokesman for the archdiocese told CNA that, after the Dec. 4 letter was issued, archdiocesan officials conducted an internal . . .
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And this regarding this same situation . . .

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Boston, Mass., Dec 29, 2018 / 09:29 pm (CNA).- The Archbishop of Boston this month forwarded to the pope’s U.S. representative concerns sent to him about a New York priest who was in active college and parish ministry while under investigation for charges of sexual abuse.

The cardinal forwarded the correspondence the day after media reports emerged . . .

. . . The cardinal said he had not forwarded the correspondence sooner because he was “away from the Archdiocese . . .
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https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/...-apostolic-nuncio-after-ny-times-report-21103

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And this . . .

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The Church Settled Sexual Abuse Cases Against This Priest. Why Is He Still Saying Mass?​

Sharon Otterman 20 Dec 2018 New York Times

MIDDLETOWN, N.Y. — The Rev. Donald G. Timone, cloaked in the purple and gold robes of Advent, led the procession down the central aisle of St. Joseph’s Church here on the first Sunday of December.

Celebrating the 11:30 a.m. Mass, he preached of the need to open one’s heart to Jesus in these days before Christmas. “He understands we are not perfect,” he said, “but he will not give up on us.” . . .

. . . The crisis was highlighted again on Wednesday, when the Illinois attorney general said in a scathing report that the Catholic Church in Illinois had withheld the names of at least 500 priests accused of sexual abuse of minors.

The Illinois attorney general contended that Catholic dioceses in the state often seemed to find ways to avoid substantiating claims of sexual abuse, saying that the dioceses were incapable of investigating themselves.

The case of Father Timone seems to indicate similar failings in how the Archdiocese of New York handles sexual assault accusations.

The New York archdiocese is essentially allowing Father Timone to continue serving as a priest because of a bureaucratic technicality — a position that seems to fly in the face of the pledge by Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan . . .

. . . Still, he has declined to release a full list of accused priests as other bishops have. “I, for one, don’t exactly see why we should, because the names are already out there,” he said in September. . . .
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Back in 2004 (after the 2002 “pedophile” scandal) we were assured these types of things would never occur again.

This from back in 2004 . . .
. . . Gregory has said the pressure of guiding the church through the height of the crisis “drove me to my knees” in prayer.

Under Gregory’s leadership, the bishops now have a binding policy on how to respond to allegations that includes barring offenders from church work and a national lay watchdog panel to help enforce the plan. . . .
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At the 2002 Dallas Charter Bishop Gregory told us . . . .
. . . “We (Bishops) are the ones,” he told his brothers, “who allowed priest abusers to remain in ministry . . . who chose not to report the criminal actions of priests . . . [who] responded to victims and their families as adversaries and not as suffering members of the church.” . . .
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(Emphasis mine and parenthetical addition mine for context)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arch...is-plan/a5dcbd5b-edc1-48f3-a663-f046fe1a7a99/

Why did anyone think the Bishops were up to the task of remedying this problem (after they . . . Well, just read what Bishop Gregory says above).

The Dallas Charter Review Board member Ray H. Siegfried II told us . . .
“Transparency is what the charter says,” he insists, “and anything short of that this businessman is not going to accept.”
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Yet now I’ve seen interview with former Board Members admitting the Bishops themselves are the ones who stonewalled them.

THIS WARNING from way back in 2004 . . .
. . . “There is no excuse at all for what happened in the church,” said Robert Bennett, a Washington lawyer and member of the lay review board. . . .
. . . For that reason, too, they said the statistics on alleged abusers and victims could be significantly underreported. “This isn’t the full picture,” Bennett said. "These are the figures the bishops provided. Some records weren’t turned over. Some were destroyed in the past. . . .
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(Emphasis mine)


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Audits, commissions, review boards, meetings, bureaucracies, reassurances, finger printing the Catholic school lunch ladies, safe environment programs that put much of the burden on the children, more “programs”, more meetings, more promises, etc.

And we are STILL dealing with this. And some of the Bishops still want to be in charge of their own “oversight” in this regards.
 
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Very disheartening yet not surprising.

Our Lady of Akita told us this would happen

“The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals and bishops against other bishops. … The Church will be full of those who accept compromises, and the devil will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.”
 
I’m not sure how this could have happened. I don’t see how the archdiocese of NY could make such a mistake.

This should be investigated.
 
Somebody goofed, big time.

I’m sure Dolan is not happy about it and some heads will likely roll.

My guess is whoever checks the files on these guys does a sloppy job or else it’s a case of two offices not talking to each other. I hope the situation of sending enquiries through the civil attorney and the Safe Environment Officer will address this concern going forward.
 
According to the university, the letter was not rescinded until after university officials contacted the Archdiocese of New York, following a Dec. 20 New York Times report on the history of allegations against Father Timone.
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Well, maybe Pope Francis is right when he told us we need the media to do their job and investigate claims of sexual abuse? I hate to say it but without the New York Times where would this situation have ended up?
Zwilling told CNA that “lessons were being learned” and that a new process had been instituted in the light of the case.
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Always learning and always coming up with new processes. It really shouldn’t be that difficult.
 
exnihilo . . .
without the New York Times where would this situation have ended up?
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Great point. I agree.

I am the first here to carp about the fake news or bias, or only partially informed Catholicism “reports” that comes out of the New York Times (when I see it).

But the New York Times deserves credit here!
 
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