Hallowe’en and priestly paedophilia

LAST night, in a desperate last-minute search for a Hallowe’en costume, I ducked into La Rosita, an enormous toy emporium in Benidorm which, this year, displayed the largest-ever collection of ghoulish accoutrement I have ever seen.

What puzzled me, though, was that priestly garb featured largely among the werewolf, witch and vampire costumes, and, for under 30 euros, I could have bought a very glitzy bishop’s outfit, replete with golden mitre.

I was holding the vestments up to a mirror when I noticed a group of young Spanish lads staring at me and snickering. The one word that leapt out of their conversation was “pedófilo”.

A skeleton in a monk's costume stands at the entrance to La Rosita

I hastily put the costume back on the rack and chose instead a grisly apron, bearing the words “family butcher”. On it was tacked various human body parts, rendered unconvincingly in rubber. Not brilliant, I admit, but it served me well at the party I later attended.

For a moment I felt a pang of sympathy for True Believers. That the spangly uniforms of their ju-ju men and gurus should be reduced to mere hallowe’en phantasmagoria and objects of ridicule seemed just a little unkind and a lot insulting

But this morning, after scrutinising my emails through the haze of a monster hangover, I decided that the placing of Christian symbols in a horror context was entirely apt.

Before I offer readers the details, let me quote from a statement made by US-based body, The Catholic League, about SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests:

SNAP does not exist to protect children; rather, its goal is to smear the Catholic Church … It is a lie to say that sexual abuse is being covered up at the highest levels of the Vatican. The homosexual scandal took place during the sexual revolution, and most of the offenses ended a quarter-century ago. To charge otherwise is scurrilous. This proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that SNAP has become the professed enemy of the Catholic Church.

The statement, issued 11 days ago, was a reaction to SNAP’s petition to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute Pope Benedict XVI for allegedly covering up:

Crimes against humanity of rape and other sexual violence committed around the world.

SNAP is being assisted by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). CCR attorney Pam Spees says:

Crimes against tens of thousands of victims, most of them children, are being covered up by officials at the highest level of the Vatican.

Report 1 concerns lawsuit filed earlier this month in St Louis Circuit Court against Father Joseph Ross of St Cronan’s Church, who is accused of sexually molested a female parishioner over the span of four years in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The suit suggests that the molestation began when the female victim was just five to six years old. The plaintiff, “Jane Doe 92,” is now 19 years old.

According to the lawsuit, Ross told the girl he was disciplining her on behalf of God and that she was helping him overcome his sexuality because he “liked boys more than girls.”  Some of the sexual abuse – which allegedly included hand-to-genital, genital-to-genital and object-to-genital contact – occurred while the victim was in Ross’ care as her mother attended choir practice.

In 2002 the St. Louis Archdioceses removed Ross from St Cronan’s, but didn’t warn the congregation about his acts of molestation. The suit further contends that the archdiocese was aware of Ross’ history of sexual abuse before he was ever assigned to St Cronan’s.

In 1988, Ross pleaded guilty in St. Louis County Circuit Court to sexually abusing an 11-year-old boy in University City. Afterward, the archdiocese allegedly sent Ross to St Luke Institute, a Maryland centre that treats priests for sexual disorders. The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages from Ross for sexual abuse and/or battery and the same from the St. Louis Archdioceses for negligent supervision of a priest, failure to supervise clergy and failure to supervise children.

Report 2 is centred on Monsignor J Peter Crynes, who was removed from active ministry in 2006 after unspecified sexual abuse accusations were made against him. A ruling from the Vatican now forbids the Diocese of Scranton priest from celebrating Mass in public or even wearing clerical garb.

Crynes, a former pastor at St Therese’s Church in Shavertown, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, will remain a priest but will not be assigned to any parishes, diocesan spokesman Bill Genello said.

He will not be performing any ministries as a priest. He hasn’t been defrocked. He is still technically a priest.

Crynes’ case was referred to Rome. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith mandated that he be:

Removed from all public ministry and relegated to a life of prayer and penance (and) is expected to dedicate his life to praying for victims and repenting of his past offenses.

Report 3 is about a 66-year-old Roman Catholic priest in Detroit who has been placed on leave after church authorities found “sufficient substance” of sexual misconduct.

The Rev Gary Schulte, pastor at St Sylvester Parish in Warren, was placed on leave last Friday by the church. He also is barred from conducting any form of Mass or public ministry.The actions were taken against Schulte after church authorities received a complaint last month alleging the “sexual misconduct” with a male under the age of 18 dating back to the priest’s early years in his ministry in the Detroit archdiocese. The complaint was received by the Victim Assistance Coordinator for the church.

Report 4 concerns another lawsuit – this one against Newark, New Jersey priest-turned-teacher John M Capparelli who allegedly had a thing about young wrestlers.

According to the abuse suit – filed by 48-year-old Andrew Dundorf of Somerset County – when Capparelli was a priest in the Archdiocese of Newark 30 years ago, he required boys in his wrestling programme to wear crotch-hugging Speedos. Capparelli would wear one, too, occasionally. And if he wasn’t wrestling with the boys, Capparelli was photographing them during matches.

Dundorf says Capparelli posed the wrestlers in “sexually suggestive positions” and groped their “chests, buttocks and genitals”

To be fair, it should be stressed that Newark Teachers Union president Joseph DelGrosso says Capparelli is a teacher “in good standing” and believes the accusations are a “witch hunt”. The union will take no action. A spokeswoman for the school district says it, too, has no grounds for action, because there have been no criminal charges and Capparelli has been a model teacher.

Hat tip: BarrieJohn