Philadelphia cardinal places 21 priests on leave following abuse allegations

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Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia has placed 21 priests in the archdiocese on administrative leave, following investigations into a grand jury report that there were credible abuse allegations against the clergy members.

“These have been difficult weeks” since the release of the report, Cardinal Rigali said in a March 8 statement. Difficult “most of all for victims of sexual abuse, but also for all Catholics and for everyone in our community.”

catholicnewsagency.com/news/philadelphia-cardinal-places-21-priests-on-leave-following-abuse-allegations/
 
From the article:

In his initial reaction to the report, Cardinal Rigali said on Feb. 10 that there were “no archdiocesan priests in ministry today who have an admitted or established allegation of sexual abuse of a minor against them.”

Within a week of the release of the grand jury report last month, the archdiocese hired Gina Maisto Smith, a former Philadelphia Assistant District Attorney who has prosecuted child sexual assault cases for nearly two decades. Smith, a partner at the law firm of Ballard Spahr, conducted an initial review of all 37 cases.

“Cardinal Rigali asked me to assist him in responding to the concerns raised in the grand jury report,” Smith said on March 8. “I was given the unlimited freedom to do a thorough review with full access to all files and documents.”

After Smith conducted her review, Cardinal Rigali announced on March 8 that **21 of the 37 priests referenced in the report have been placed on administrative leave. **

end quote

Certainly raises the question of who is minding business in Philly. Doesn’t sound like the Cardinal knows what’s going on in his own archdiocese. Did he actually go into a grand jury room not knowing all the facts? It boggles my mind.
 
Certainly raises the question of who is minding business in Philly. Doesn’t sound like the Cardinal knows what’s going on in his own archdiocese. Did he actually go into a grand jury room not knowing all the facts? It boggles my mind.

Poster #2: Your remark seems to imply that the Cardinal was floating on a pink cloud. IN reality, he is the one who brought it a litigator to conduct an investigation. Doesn’t that show that he is both in charge and taking appropreiate actions? He did not fly off the handle and react without having established a proper investigation. Innocent until proven guilty is still a part of our legal system to my knowledge. As you did not emphasize a number of those preist charged were found to be innocent as well. Let’s pray for all involved that justice can be done.
 
Sherry_G said:
Certainly raises the question of who is minding business in Philly. Doesn’t sound like the Cardinal knows what’s going on in his own archdiocese. Did he actually go into a grand jury room not knowing all the facts? It boggles my mind.
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Poster #2: Your remark seems to imply that the Cardinal was floating on a pink cloud. IN reality, he is the one who brought it a litigator to conduct an investigation. Doesn’t that show that he is both in charge and taking appropreiate actions? He did not fly off the handle and react without having established a proper investigation. Innocent until proven guilty is still a part of our legal system to my knowledge. As you did not emphasize a number of those preist charged were found to be innocent as well. Let’s pray for all involved that justice can be done.

I think you missed the point.

The Cardinal brought in the litigator a week after the Grand Jury report came out, naming 37 priest.

Following that, 21 priest were placed on leave.

Why did it take a Grand Jury to descover this and why didn’t the Cardinal know about it before hand?

Jim
 
JimR-OCDS said:
I think you missed the point.

The Cardinal brought in the litigator a week after the Grand Jury report came out, naming 37 priest.

Following that, 21 priest were placed on leave.

Why did it take a Grand Jury to descover this and why didn’t the Cardinal know about it before hand?

Jim
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Yes, and that’s putting the most charitable face on it. Let’s pray that it was in fact ignorance of the situation, hard as it is to understand how that could be.
 
momor said:
Yes, and that’s putting the most charitable face on it. Let’s pray that it was in fact ignorance of the situation, hard as it is to understand how that could be.
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A lot of abuse cases were uncovered when (now) Cardinal Burke took over the St. Louis Archdiocese from Cardinal Rigali.
 
If it is ultimately proven that he knew about the cases and lied to the Grand Jury, we may finally see a bishop accused of a crime. If he didn’t know what was going on then he should be fired for incompetence. Either way, it reflects very poorly on him.
 
momor said:
and your point is?
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I guess I don’t have a point. The indictment is sickening. To think these men used the Precious Blood to get little boys drunk is beyond the pale. Whenever we’re told to love the unlovable, these men are the hard ones to love. It deepens my understanding of sin and the humiliation of Jesus Crucifixion. Jesus died for them too.

Pray for us O Holy Mother of God.
 
JimR-OCDS said:
Poster #2: Your remark seems to imply that the Cardinal was floating on a pink cloud. IN reality, he is the one who brought it a litigator to conduct an investigation. Doesn’t that show that he is both in charge and taking appropreiate actions? He did not fly off the handle and react without having established a proper investigation. Innocent until proven guilty is still a part of our legal system to my knowledge. As you did not emphasize a number of those preist charged were found to be innocent as well. Let’s pray for all involved that justice can be done.
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I think you missed the point.

The Cardinal brought in the litigator a week after the Grand Jury report came out, naming 37 priest.

Following that, 21 priest were placed on leave.

Why did it take a Grand Jury to descover this and why didn’t the Cardinal know about it before hand?

Jim

I don’t think I’ve missed any point here. Some people think that a Bishop has some type of omnicient powers and discerns for himself whether abuse claims are valid. That is not the case nor should it be. The Bishop has done things properly . Bishops don’t lurk around in each parish spying on every priest in the diocese and playing policeman. As stated in the article, based on the Grand Jury findings, those whose charges are due further investigation have been suspended pending the outcome. So far, so good. The posters here won’t acknowledge that quite of few of those priests who were accused of abuse in claims that were NOT found to be legitimate in the grand jury findings. Even those that were judged to deserve further investigation or even trials does not mean all the priests are guilty, does it? I think we should not rush to judge. The Church is doing what should be done. We as Catholics need to pray about it, not add fuel to the fire. Surely you can see that.
 
>>> The Church is doing what should be done.

The grand jury emphasized that the archdiocese itself is a large and continuing part of the problem, saying in its report, “Often taking direction from its attorneys, Archdiocese officials historically engaged in a deliberate strategy to bully, mislead, and stonewall victims.”

The report also recommends that charges of child endangerment should be brought against Monsignor William Lynn, who was Secretary for Clergy under Cardinal Bevilaqua.
 
After reading the Grand Jury report I want to puke. Even after the scathing report of the 2005 Grand Jury findings they still left accused priests in contact with kids. That archdiocese is run like a “good ole boys” club and there is obvious disrespect shown for the law and also for their own sex abuse experts at St. John Vianny Hospital who repeatedly warned them that one of the priests was violating his treatment plan.

In my archdiocese we have a record number of seminarians in formation right now. I can only hope that Christ is renewing His Church and He is working to rid it of some of these monsters.
 
momor said:
After reading the Grand Jury report I want to puke. Even after the scathing report of the 2005 Grand Jury findings they still left accused priests in contact with kids. That archdiocese is run like a “good ole boys” club and there is obvious disrespect shown for the law and also for their own sex abuse experts at St. John Vianny Hospital who repeatedly warned them that one of the priests was violating his treatment plan.

In my archdiocese we have a record number of seminarians in formation right now. I can only hope that Christ is renewing His Church and He is working to rid it of some of these monsters.
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Oh the seminarians are wonderful. In St. Louis, the seminary has record numbers in formation right now too. They are holy and on fire. (now) Cardinal Burke did a wonderful job of cleaning out the seminary and sifting out the sex offenders. Archbishop Carlson is continuing Cardinal Burke’s wonderful legacy. We’ve got a new orthodoxy going on here.👍
 
qui_est_ce said:
Oh the seminarians are wonderful. In St. Louis, the seminary has record numbers in formation right now too. They are holy and on fire. (now) Cardinal Burke did a wonderful job of cleaning out the seminary and sifting out the sex offenders. Archbishop Carlson is continuing Cardinal Burke’s wonderful legacy. We’ve got a new orthodoxy going on here.👍
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Are there really record numbers of seminarians in formation, or is it that all the seminaries of the state were merged into one?

There was an article some one posted about record numbers of seminarians here in New England at St. Johns Seminary in Boston. However, it was misleading.

St John’s changed from being the exclusive seminary for the Archdioceses of Boston, to being a central seminary for all of New England.

In other words, all the other seminaries were closed because of the decline of applicants to those seminaries, so, they merely sent the few candidates they had to St. Johns in Boston, which was the real reason for the increase of seminarians there.

Jim
 
JimR-OCDS said:
Are there really record numbers of seminarians in formation, or is it that all the seminaries of the state were merged into one?

There was an article some one posted about record numbers of seminarians here in New England at St. Johns Seminary in Boston. However, it was misleading.

St John’s changed from being the exclusive seminary for the Archdioceses of Boston, to being a central seminary for all of New England.

In other words, all the other seminaries were closed because of the decline of applicants to those seminaries, so, they merely sent the few candidates they had to St. Johns in Boston, which was the real reason for the increase of seminarians there.

Jim
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We do have a few from other dioceses, but none from closed seminaries, that I am aware of. The seminary is just about in my backyard and they have been adding on due to the numbers. They did merge the seminary and the college in 1987, and that was over 20 years ago.
from the website:
We are fortunate. In the fall of 2008, Kenrick-Glennon Seminary had its largest enrollment in the past 20 years. Our prayers for vocations are being answered and God has given us a seminary that is nearly filled to capacity. Now it is our responsibility, as good stewards of His gifts, to provide an appropriate facility and the necessary resources for our seminarians’ education and formation.
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I can’t find how many ordinations for 2011, but their are 20 (TWENTY) seminarians in their 4th year of Theology. I believe 50% of these are candidates for ordination in 2011. Last year we had 8 ordinations, the second time since 2003 since we’ve had that many.

I remember years when there were NO ordinations or just one. These is so awesome! 👍👍
 
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