Vatican's new top prosecutor was involved in notorious abuse case, Boston Globe finds

[ProVobis]

catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=23328

The American Jesuit priest who was recently appointed as the Vatican’s top prosecutor in sex-abuse cases was involved in the handling of complaints against a notorious abusive priest, the Boston Globe has revealed.

In September, Pope Francis appointed Father Robert Geisinger, a canon lawyer who had been procurator general of the Society of Jesus, as the promoter of justice at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In that post he has primary responsibility for making the case for disciplinary action against priests charged with sexual abuse.

The Globe found, however, that Father Geisinger had advised Jesuit superiors regarding the handling of Donald McGuire, who escaped disciplinary action for years before finally being convicted on multiple criminal charges for molesting young men. McGuire, once a respected lecturer and retreat master, was dismissed from the Jesuit order in 2007 and laicized in 2008; he his now serving a 25-year prison term.

Using court documents, the Globe demonstrated that Father Geisinger was aware of complaints against McGuire as early as 1995. And continued to provide advice on handling the troubled priest through 2002. During that time, Jesuit superiors failed to inform police or alert potential victims, although many complaints had been lodged against McGuire and the priest had repeatedly violated orders to stay away from adolescent boys.

Questioned about Father Geisinger’s role in the McGuire case, Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican press office, said that the Vatican prosecutor had “voiced concerns regarding McGuire’s conduct” while serving in the Chicago province. More recently, he said, Father Geisinger had successfully argued the case for stripping McGuire of his priestly status.

[Philip Lawler, the editor of Catholic World News, is quoted in the Globe story, questioning why the Vatican appointed to “such a high-profile, sensitive position” a priest whose involvement in a notorious case would raise questions about his willingness to prosecute abusive priests aggressively.]

 

[TEPO]

Maybe he was able to learn from his mistakes, in which case, having such first hand experience might make him the best choice.

 

[dans0622]

I have no opinion on the wisdom/prudence of the appointment. I don’t know anything about Fr. Geisinger other than what is in this article.

The article itself leaves something to be desired. For example, it says he was aware of complaints against the depraved priest and “advised” the Superiors about him. As a canon lawyer and member of the Jesuit community, I suppose he would both be aware of the complaints and offer advice. This is supposed to make him unable to competently/faithfully “prosecute” cases in his new position at the Holy See? That’s the conclusion the article seems to want us to draw.

Dan

 

[Jerurussia]

I doubt that this canon lawyer could have been allowed to stop the factory-like production of cover stories. Too lucrative. Follow the money. This conveyor belt of clerical sex offenders that pulls perps into St. Luke’s sexxx treatment center in Maryland–including McGuire–has, as the nasal Carl Sagan might have said, garnered “mmillions and mmillions” in fees from the Catholic corpus to cure and return priests to service. As utterly failed, St. Luke’s is arguably the nexus of millstone-worthy evil in the USA, with one sexologist candidly commenting that the priestly pedophiles he has treated are among the most hardened and recalcitrant clients he has ever…un-cured.

bishop-accountability.org/news2012/11_12/2012_11_05_Piscitelli_FrStephen.htm

 

[Jerurussia]

freerepublic.com/focus/religion/814236/posts?page=61

Here’s Judith Reisman, PhD., urging the American Catholic bishops to sue, sue, sue! There is a precedent for malpractice in sex therapists with an unfounded promise of a cure in this bogus, pseudo-scientific field rife with de facto lobbyists for legalizing the fetish of the month. Not gonna happen, because the bishops themselves are one notch away from a R.I.C.O. racketeering lawsuit in their cover-up cabal.