Men [of God] at work proving their hypocrisy and corruption
Michael Newton
prosecutions of church leaders who sheltered and promoted these felons for
decades on end? The "Holy Church" is no better than the Mafia--and it has
the same mercenary goals for protecting its mythical "good name."
mn
LOUISIANA: GILBERT GAUTHIER, PRIEST CHILD RAPIST, DID 10 YRS PRISON
March 19, 2002
Church Scandal Resurrects Old Hurts in Louisiana Bayou
By ANTHONY DePALMA
Philip Gould for The New York Times
Gilbert Gauthier in a holding cell at Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office in
1985.
ESTHER, La., March 17 - Nothing stays buried for long in the bayou. That is
why the granite vaults and the whitewashed tombs of the cemetery behind St.
James Chapel are built above ground: high water means the dead just don't
stay down.
Nor does the past. Try as they might, locals like Curnal Cessac cannot keep
buried the unspeakable things that happened here 20 years ago, when a
priest had his way with dozens of altar boys in the dark of the
confessional, in the confines of the sacristy, even on the altars of St.
James and other churches. "We thought we had dealt with it, and then it
pops back up again," said Mr. Cessac, reflecting on the way recurring
pedophile scandals within the Roman Catholic priesthood renew all the old
memories. "Now there's a few people who're saying all over again that the
church shouldn't have paid those boys" the millions of dollars in damage
verdicts and settlements that the case here cost the Diocese of Lafayette.
This was the first case of a pedophile priest to gain national attention,
and it opened the way for suits here and around the country. More than
that, what happened in Esther and the surrounding community offers insight
into the kind of lasting psychological and emotional effects that such
episodes can have on the victims, and on whole communities.
Mr. Cessac, who is retired but still volunteers to take care of the old
cemetery behind St. James Chapel, was one of the lucky ones. His sons were
altar boys in the 1980's, but they never got too close to the Rev. Gilbert
Gauthe, the dashing priest, then in his late 30's, who rode a motorcycle
and wore cowboy boots under his robe. The altar boys in this rural area of
rice fields and crawfish traps deep in southern Louisiana's Cajun country
thought Father Gauthe was the hippest guy around.
Then the dark truth came out. He was arrested in 1983 and ultimately struck
a plea bargain in which he admitted having sexually abused dozens of them.
For the victims, speaking out, both in the criminal case and in the civil
suits brought by their families, provided a kind of therapy. Unlike the
adults in Boston who have only now brought complaints about events decades
old, they could confront their abuser and see him punished when they were
still boys. They did not have to live with the effects of suppressed memory.
But speaking out also made them pariahs to some in this intensely Catholic
community. More than 80% of the people here are solid, fish-on-Fridays
Catholics, and the church's presence is everywhere as evident as the bells
at St. Mary Magdalen Church in Abbeville that toll every quarter-hour.
Since this was the first prominent case of pedophilia in the church, there
were no others to compare it to back then, and many Catholics doubted the
boys' accounts. Some privately still do. Many cannot fathom how any
Catholic family, or Catholic lawyer, could sue the church. Dealing with
the case led some here to abandon their faith, and others to reaffirm it.
"It's been hard, but I didn't lose my faith," Mr. Cessac said. "I wouldn't
think too many in this community turned away."
Church records indicate that he is right. Local membership has grown, not
declined, since the mid-1980's, and although Bible Churches and other
congregations have sprouted recently, not one Catholic church has had to be
shut. Attendance at Catholic schools also remains high. All this leaves
victims dumbfounded.
"Catholic tradition around here is wound up so tight it's like a ball of
string that traps you inside," said Calvin Mire, a local police sergeant
who, as an altar boy at St. James, was abused by Father Gauthe (pronounced
GO-thay) for six years, until he was 15. His two younger brothers were also
victims.
Unlike many other families, the Mires did not accept quietly when the
church offered a settlement. After his family sued, Calvin took the stand.
He paid for doing so.
"I was condemned in my own community - my brother's boss, who was a deacon
at church, fired him and wouldn't talk to me - and why?" Sergeant Mire
said. "Because I talked about what that priest did to me. He intruded on my
life, he hurt me psychologically, physically, and I'm supposed to shut up
about it?"
Few want to talk about what happened, and others are barred from doing so:
the settlements reached by the families of most victims include
confidentiality agreements. The story not many will tell is a Southern
gothic tale of sex, power and God. Father Gauthe was a charming man whose
sermons could make people cry. When he visited a family for dinner, he
usually left his collar at the rectory and wore an open-neck shirt and cool
shades. He had a camper van with a television.
Only after one of his loyal flock of altar boys was hospitalized with
rectal bleeding did the truth start to come out: he had molested dozens of
them over several years, taken pornographic photographs of them and fondled
them in the confessional, telling them he was checking for a hernia.
When the boys' parents confronted the diocese in 1983, Father Gauthe was
removed. In 1985, without ever offering the families an apology, he
admitted having abused 37 boys. He accepted a plea bargain and was
sentenced to 20 years in prison. After serving 10 years, Mr. Gauthe, whom
the church had defrocked, was released and moved to Waskom, Tex., near
Shreveport.
He was soon arrested for fondling a 3- year-old boy, but the Texas
authorities did not know of his criminal record in Louisiana, and he was
placed on supervised probation.
Outraged families here, many of whom had not known that Mr. Gauthe was even
out of prison, demanded that their local prosecutor do something. He
detained Mr. Gauthe over a new accusation that back in the 1980's, the
priest had raped a 12-year-old sister of one of his altar-boy victims.
Later, though, the state and the defense discovered a long-forgotten
provision in Mr. Gauthe's plea bargain: immunity against further complaints
on acts that had occurred before 1985. With prosecution on the rape charge
now barred, Mr. Gauthe, having been detained on that charge about two
years, was set free in February 2000. He has not been heard from since.
***********
CONNECTICUT: CHILD PRIEST RAPISTS
NY times
March 19, 2002
Portrayal of the Church Causes Unease
By PAUL ZIELBAUER
RIDGEPORT, Conn., March 18 - In heavily Roman Catholic Fairfield County,
and particularly here in the urban heart of the Bridgeport diocese where
Edward M. Egan ran a tight administrative ship as bishop for 12 years,
there was palpable discomfort today that had nothing to do with the driving
rain or biting winds. Even Catholics who had not heard the latest report,
based on sealed court documents, which appeared to establish that Cardinal
Egan reassigned priests accused of child sexual abuse and did not report
them to the police, knew that the cardinal was suddenly in the news, and
that the news was not good. The report, published in The Hartford Courant
on Sunday, cited sworn testimony by Cardinal Egan, who has not responded
publicly.
Asked their thoughts on these new revelations, Catholics young and old, at
school and at church, expressed a mix of support, dismay and frustration
that Cardinal Egan's dozen years of work here before he became the
archbishop of New York in 2000 are now up for question. And they voiced a
stoic unease with how their church has been portrayed, accurately or not,
as a harbor for a small fraction of sexually predatory priests. "It really
doesn't have anything to do with the church" but with society as a whole,
said Andrea Canuel, a junior at Notre Dame Catholic High School in
Fairfield. No, she had never heard of the Rev. Charles Carr, the defrocked
priest who taught at Notre Dame in the 1980's and whom Bishop Egan
apparently reassigned, suspended and reinstated when sexual- abuse
allegations surfaced against him, according to the court records.
As rain plinked off her eyeglasses, Andrea considered the Cardinal Egan she
knew about. "He's been the bishop ever since I was born; I was confirmed by
him," she said. "I guess he had his reasons. I guess his loyalty to the
priests was greater than his concern for the kids." Tom Tuccio, a junior
at Notre Dame who was heading out for a cross-country run with his friends,
said that he did not understand all the details of the controversy swirling
around Cardinal Egan, but that covering up any allegations of sexual abuse
by priests would be unacceptable. "That defeats the whole point of
religion," he said. "By doing this, they're defeating the whole message of
`love one another' just so they won't look bad." James McGehee, a
sophomore, said the message he picked up from the recent revelations about
Catholic priests nationwide is that "priests are just normal people, and
you can't rely on normal people, because they have problems like anyone
else."
There are 360,000 Catholics in prosperous Fairfield County, about 45
percent of the county's population, said Joseph McAleer, the spokesman for
the Diocese of Bridgeport.
Most in the diocese have not questioned their faith, but hewed even closer
to it, he said. "There has been a rallying among Catholics," Mr. McAleer
said in an interview at the diocese's headquarters today. "I have not
detected any negative fallout. The mood is one of understanding. People
have confidence in the church." He added, "Certainly there is a great
affection in the diocese for Cardinal Egan."
Last March, Bishop William E. Lori succeeded Cardinal Egan in Bridgeport,
and issued a public policy on addressing and evaluating any allegations of
sex abuse by priests or other church officials. He said last week that the
diocese was examining internal records for any signs of sexual misconduct.
The state's attorney here, Jonathan Benedict, said today that his office
would not investigate whether the diocese broke a state law requiring
allegations of abuse to be reported to law enforcement, because the statute
of limitations on the crimes had expired. Jason E. Tremont, a lawyer
representing 24 of 26 families with which the diocese settled sex abuse
charges last year, said today that Bishop Lori should release the names of
all the diocese's priests who have been accused of sexual misconduct.
At St. Andrew Regional School, affiliated with the Bridgeport diocese -
where Bishop Egan appointed Father Carr as parochial vicar in June 1991, a
year after a diocese official wrote a memo concerning allegations of abuse
against Father Carr - there were contradictory opinions of Cardinal Egan.
"I think he inherited a lot of the problems," said Ursula Mesaros of
Bridgeport as she packed her daughter and toddler into a car in the school
parking lot. "Every family has its problems, and the church is a family."
But an eighth-grade teacher at the Catholic school, who asked not to be
identified for fear of reprisals from the diocese, expressed disappointment
in Cardinal Egan and relief that he is no longer head of the church here.
"I'm disappointed in the way that he's made everyone second-guess everyone
in the Catholic Church," the teacher said after school. "It makes me really
glad we have Bishop Lori."
***********
BOSTON: INZERILLO PCR
Leominster parishioners demand priest's removal
by Robin Washington and Tom Mashberg
Tuesday, March 19, 2002
LEOMINSTER - As the Archdiocese of Boston prepares to hand Attorney General
Tom Reilly the full details of child sex abuse allegations involving its
priests today, parents at St. Leo's Parish here are demanding the Worcester
Diocese remove an associate pastor they worry could be a danger to
children. The call to oust the Rev. Peter J. Inzerillo, who was named with
retired Rev. Brendan W. O'Donoghue in a sexual misconduct suit settled in
1999 for $300,000, comes as another alleged victim files suit against
O'Donoghue today. Craig Lacaire, 36, of Spencer is filing suit in Worcester
Superior Court claiming O'Donoghue raped and sodomized him at Our Lady of
the Rosary parish. Lacaire was an altar boy at the Spencer church with Ed
Gagne, who filed the previous suit claiming O'Donoghue molested him as a
child and that Inzerillo did so when he was 19.
But that age distinction mattered little to parents dropping off
kindergartners at the parish school yesterday. ``That's still a child in my
eyes. That's somebody's kid,'' said one mother. ``I'm uncomfortable with
(Inzerillo) being here because of the fact of the school being here. You
bring them to a Catholic school to get the best education and feel that
they're safe. That takes the whole `My child is safe' out of the picture. A
lot of the mothers here have great concern,'' she said.
Daniel J. Shea, a lawyer practicing in Texas and Massachusetts, is
representing three families with children at the school. ``We've told the
bishop Inzerillo goes or there will be consequences. This is no longer
pretty please or genuflecting,'' he said.
Shea said legal avenues include a possible suit charging Bishop Daniel P.
Reilly with negligence for placing the priest at the parish despite having
knowledge of accusations against him. In a statement, diocese spokesman Ray
Delisle said officials from the bishop's office and the Catholic School
Department have been speaking with concerned parents for the past three
weeks. ``It has been confirmed that all (of Inzerillo's) contact with
children at the school has been in public or adult supervised capacities
and that no details of specific wrongdoings are being presented,'' the
statement said.
Shea disputed that, saying that last year Inzerillo spoke alone to a
gathering of eighth-graders and immediately turned the conversation to sex,
suggesting that boys responded to stimuli faster than girls because their
genitalia are external instead of internal. ``If for nothing else, this man
needs to be dismissed for monumental stupidity,'' Shea said.
The diocese statement also said the parents' concerns were ``with having an
associate pastor who has been involved in an allegation of wrongdoing
against an adult, even though no liability was identified on anyone's part
in that case's settlement.''
The Rev. Steven LaBaire of St. Luke's the Evangelist in Westboro disputed
that there was only one accusation against Inzerillo, however, saying that
diocese lawyers were present when he gave a sworn deposition detailing
another charge against the Leominster priest. ``There was no follow-up at
all. In regard to the deposition it was very clear that they didn't want to
have anything to do with it,'' LaBaire told the Herald last month. The
statement said Bishop Reilly is continuing an investigation of Inzerillo.
The diocese had no comment yesterday on the new suit that holds it
responsible for the actions of O'Donoghue, who is listed in the Official
Catholic Directory as retired, and did not return messages left at his
Shrewsbury home. Lacaire, a separated father of three, said he suffers
endless night terrors and lives on disability income due to post-traumatic
stress disorder because of the abuse, some of which he says took place in
the sacristy at Our Lady. ``I've only now found the courage to come
forward,'' he said. Like Gagne, Lacaire once aspired to become a priest. He
says Gagne's long battle against the Worcester Diocese, Inzerillo and
O'Donoghue have inspired him to seek out attorney Jeffrey A. Newman of
Newman & Ponsetto and go public with his ordeal.
``This is a blood crime for the Catholic Church,'' he said. ``I remain very
spiritual. I believe the Lord shines His light on all that is evil. I know
I will have to forgive this man just to go on living. It was so very hard
to come forward back then. In that day and age the priest was God. The
church did everything it could to dissuade you - they literally creamed you
if you spoke up.''
His lawyer said several other plaintiffs, including women, have contacted
him about suing the Worcester Diocese and its former priests, and he
expects to file at least one more lawsuit this week. On Saturday, Bishop
Reilly put the Rev. Lee F. Bartlett on administrative leave from his
position as pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus in Worcester following a charge
of sexual misconduct with a minor ``some years ago,'' a diocese statement
said. Last month, the Rev. John J. Bagley, a onetime Vatican official, was
removed from St. Mary's in Grafton after a similar charge.
Robin Washington may be reached at rwash...@bostonherald.com
***********
BOSTON: BERNIE LAW'S ANNUAL GARDEN PARTY MOVED TO ANOTHER LOCATION
Cardinal's garden party fund-raiser relocated in wake of priest scandal
by Eric Convey
Tuesday, March 19, 2002
The annual garden party at Bernard Cardinal Law's residence, a black-tie
centerpiece of the spring social scene, is being recast and relocated as a
result of the growing sex abuse scandal. ``There will be a fund-raiser to
raise the crucial funds needed, but it will be in a different format. Those
plans are still being developed,'' an aide to Law said yesterday. ``It is
still happening,'' the aide added. ``It's just happening in a different
format.''
The event typically raises $1 million or more for Catholic Charities. While
supporting the goals, some prominent Catholics felt it was inappropriate to
celebrate so boldly this year, an archdiocesan official said. In another
blow to Law yesterday, John Hancock Financial Services Chief Executive
David D'Alessandro joined the list of prominent people calling for the
cardinal's resignation. His move followed publication of a Wall Street
Journal opinion piece in which former Education Secretary William J.
Bennett, author of ``The Book of Virtues,'' called for Law's resignation.
Last week, the Boston Herald ran an editorial saying the cardinal should
step down.
But Law, 70, has shown no intention of stepping down as leader of the
fourth-largest U.S. archdiocese, with 2 million Catholics. He has been
archbishop since 1984, and up until this crisis, was regarded as perhaps
the most powerful American prelate in the Roman Catholic Church.
``Archbishop is not a corporate executive,'' Law said at a Mass last month.
In another local development, a poll of parishioners at St. Gerard Majella
church in Canton, 60% said Law should step down, according to a preliminary
review of 600 responses. ``Some people didn't have an opinion,'' said the
Rev. Bernard P. McLaughlin, pastor of the church. McLaughlin cautioned that
the preliminary results from a survey do not speak for the entire parish.