From Crisis to Hope
He is clothed in both his Franciscan habit and his prison uniform. It is difficult to see in the image, but he is holding a book with Japanese characters symbolic of his ministry to the people of Japan before his return to Poland to face imprisonment at Auschwitz. The Japanese characters are pronounced, “seibo no Kishi,” and the literal meaning is “the knights belong to the Blessed Mother.”
From Crisis to Hope by Fr. Gordon MacRae
It was one year ago this week on the solemnity of the Assumption that Suzanne published her first blog post launching Priests in Crisis. It was one day after the Church honors the martyrdom of St. Maximilian Kolbe. It came as no surprise to me that Suzanne is a member of the Militia of the Immaculata, a movement founded by Fr. Maximilian before he was imprisoned at Auschwitz. He pointed everyone he met to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It is no mystery why Priests in Crisis entrusts wounded priests “to Mary their Mother.”
I don’t think most people can readily grasp how important the apostolate of Priests in Crisis has been for me.
The most difficult aspect of being a priest in prison is that I am virtually silenced. The shouts of the mob vilifying me and others who have been accused have long since stifled our efforts to speak truth. From my prison cell over the years, I have written thousands of letters to hundreds of priests, bishops and Catholic lay leaders. Earning but $2 a day in prison labor, everything I had went to postage, paper and typing ribbons. I was relentless in my writing for years. Ninety-five percent of those I wrote to never responded. I wrote pleading for fairness for accused priests, but it mostly fell upon deaf ears. One priest sent my letter back to me with a terse note instructing me never to write to him again.
Those who did answer over the years, however, stand out as people who speak and write with the authority of truth. Among these were two very special men who became my lifeline for communication with our Church. They were Cardinal Avery Dulles and Fr. Richard John Neuhaus. They encouraged me to write and to never stop writing. Then, suddenly, within months of each other in 2008, they were gone. I have read many tributes to them both, and I know that many miss them. I believe that I miss them most of all for without them, I was silenced again.
A few months ago, at the end of a particularly difficult day in prison, I offered the day in prayer for Fr. Neuhaus. I asked him to please remember me in the Presence of our Lord. Days later, I was contacted by Suzanne, seemingly out of the blue. She asked that I post a comment for Pentecost on Priests in Crisis.
My first post, “Kill the Priest!” made the rounds in the Catholic blog-o-sphere, and led down a short but winding path to the launching of my own blog, These Stone Walls: Musings from Prison of a Priest Falsely Accused.
Just months ago, I could never have envisioned this. Suzanne and the readers of Priests in Crisis made this happen by giving me a voice again. Actually, Fr. Neuhaus and Cardinal Dulles made it happen. They were dear friends to each other on earth, and now they conspire together. I know that they would both approve of Priests in Crisis.
George Weigel was also a dear friend of Fr. Neuhaus. In his challenging book, “The Courage to be Catholic,” Mr. Weigel wrote,
“The path from crisis to reform is the path along which the entire Church rediscovers the great adventure of fidelity and Catholic orthodoxy.” (The Courage to be Catholic, Basic Books, 2002, p. 230).
Fr. Neuhaus called the priesthood crisis “the long Lent of 2002,” and once wrote to me that the path from this crisis is marked by three signposts:
“Fidelity, fidelity and fidelity.”
This is precisely why Suzanne’s apostolate along with the readers of Priests in Crisis is so important. While the voices of some of the self-described “faithful,” are using the crisis to foment dissent Suzanne and her readers practice a quiet but dignified fidelity to the Church. This is, in fact, the path to reform. It is also the path to hope.
Fr. Maximilian Kolbe would also approve of Priests in Crisis. In my first blog post on These Stone Walls (St. Maximilian Kolbe and the Man in the Mirror), I described an image of Fr. Maximilian that is now on the shaving mirror of my prison cell. He is clothed in both his Franciscan habit and his prison uniform.
It is difficult to see in the image, but he is holding a book with Japanese characters symbolic of his ministry to the people of Japan before his return to Poland to face imprisonment at Auschwitz. The Japanese characters are pronounced, “seibo no Kishi,” and the literal meaning is “the knights belong to the Blessed Mother.”
The mission of Priests in Crisis – to entrust priests to Mary, Our Mother – is inspired and deeply meaningful. It is a road map to hope. In the August/September issue of Homiletic and Pastoral Review, Fr. Kenneth Baker, S.J. has an excellent article, “The Sacred Heart and the Catholic Priest.” Fr. Baker writes (quoting Pope Pius XII in Menti Nostrae),
“Priests can be called by a very special title, ‘sons of Mary.’ “Fr. Baker added, “Our Blessed Mother is also the mother of all priests.“
St. Maximilian and Suzanne are on the same page here. They know that despite all of the dents in our armor, we seek refuge in the Mother of our Lord. A few days ago, Charlene Duline, mailed me a page printed from the Catholic Answers forum. It was a posting by Suzanne, and there was a wonderful quote from the Venerable John Henry Newman:
“And the truth is passed on by the small, fervent band of the few. Not by the many, but by the dauntless, resolute, dedicated few.”
Psychiatrist and author, Viktor Frankl named Fr. Maximilian Kolbe as his model of sacrifice at Auschwitz (Man’s Search for Meaning, p. 179). Dr. Frankl added,
“At times of great crisis, decent people form a minority. More than that, they will always be a minority. And yet I see therein the very challenge to join the minority.”
Thank you, Suzanne, and the readers and contributors of Priests in Crisis. Thank you for being the very decent people the Church needs, the dauntless, resolute and dedicated voice of the faithful who show us who are broken the way to hope.
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Rev Gordon MacRae Thanks Priests in Crisis Readers on his Ordination Anniversary
Rev Gordon MacRae Thanks Priests in Crisis Readers on his Ordination Anniversary
Dear Suzanne and Readers of Priests in Crisis:
May grace and peace be with you. Over the course of the last week since Pentecost Sunday, many of your messages were read to me and printed copies have been mailed to me.
I have not yet received them as mail to prisoners is quite slow. Once I have read your comments I plan to write again more personally.
For now, I wish to tell you how overwhelmed I am with the knowledge that so many have taken the time to read the truth and to offer prayers and Masses for me.
Today, June 5th, is the 27th anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood. I offer this day in prison and tomorrow, the anniversary of my first Mass, as a share in the suffering of Christ for the readers and supporters of “Priests in Crisis.”
A significant part of the ongoing tragedy of priests being accused from decades past is that many have attempted to use the scandal to further an agenda.
What sets “Priests in Crisis” and its readers and contributors apart is the heroic spirit of fidelity to the Church and Magisterium inherent in your words and work.
As the late Fr. Neuhaus wisely wrote,
“There are three solutions to the current crisis: fidelity, fidelity and fidelity.”
On this day in prison, on the occasion of my 27th anniversary of priesthood, I honor your fidelity to the Church and to the priesthood of suffering and sacrifice.
As a wrongly imprisoned priest, I honor your exemplary faithfulness to the corporal works of mercy.
With Thanks and Blessings,
Fr. Gordon MacRae
Rev Gordon MacRae Writes to Priests in Crisis Readers on Pentecost
Please send Father 27th Anniversary well wishes in the comments section below!
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Catholic League on Clerical Sex Abuse Payout Fraud and Larceny
Sex Abuse and Signs of Fraud by the Rev. Gordon J. MacRae
(Catalyst 11/2005)
Three years before the latest wave of clergy sex abuse claims rippled out of Boston across the country, Sean Murphy, age 37, and his mother, Sylvia, demanded $850,000 from the Archdiocese of Boston. Sean claimed that three decades earlier, he and his brother were repeatedly molested by their parish priest.
In support of the claim, Mrs. Murphy produced old school records placing her sons in a community where the priest was once assigned. No other corroboration was needed. Shortly thereafter, Byron Worth, age 41, recounted molestation by the same priest and demanded his own six-figure settlement.
The men were following an established practice of “blanket settlements,” a precedent set in the early 1990s when a multitude of molestation claims from the 1960s and 1970s emerged against Father James Porter and a few other priests. In 1993, the Diocese of Fall River settled some 80 such claims in one fell swoop. Other Church institutions followed that lead on the advice of insurers and attorneys.
Before the Murphys’ $850,000 demand was paid, however, Sean, his mother, and Byron Worth were indicted by a Massachusetts grand jury for conspiracy, attempted larceny, and soliciting others to commit larceny. It turned out that Sean and Byron were once inmates together at the Massachusetts Correctional Institute at Shirley where they concocted their fraudulent plan to score a windfall from their beleaguered Church.
On November 16, 2001, Sean Murphy and Byron Worth pleaded guilty to all charges and were sentenced to less than two years in prison for the scam. The younger Murphy brother was never charged, and Mrs. Murphy died before facing court proceedings.
Local newspapers relegated the Murphy scam to the far back pages while headlines screamed about the emerging multitude of decades-old claims of abuse by priests. When two other inmates at MCI-Shirley accused another priest in 2001, a Boston lawyer wrote that it is no coincidence these men shared the same prison.
“They also shared the same contingency lawyer,” he wrote. “I have some contacts in the prison system, having been an attorney for some time, and it has been made known to me that this is a current and popular scam.”
It is not difficult to understand the roots of such fraud. Prison inmates, like others, read newspapers. Just months before the onslaught of claims against priests, the Archdiocese of Boston landed on the litigation radar screen with the notorious arrest of Mr. Christopher Reardon, a young, married, Catholic layman, model citizen, and youth counselor at a local YMCA who was also employed part-time at a small, remote parish outpost north of Boston.
As Mr. Reardon’s extensive serial child molestation case came to light—with substantial and graphic DNA, videotape, and photographic evidence of assaults that occurred over previous months—the YMCA quickly entered into settlements consistent with the State’s charitable immunity laws.
In a search for deeper pockets, however, a local contingency lawyer pondered for the news media about whether the rural part-time parish worker’s activities were personally known—and covered up—by the Cardinal Archbishop of Boston. It was a ludicrous suggestion, but it was a springboard to announce in the Boston Globe (July 14, 2001) that “the hearsay and speculation” among lawyers and clients, is that “the Catholic Church settled their cases [of suspected abuse by priests] for an average of $500,000 each since the 1990s.”
It was a dangled lure that would soon have many takers, some of whom have been to the Church’s ATM more than once. In January of 2003, at the height of the clergy scandal, a 68-year-old Massachusetts priest had the poor judgment to be drawn into a series of suggestive Internet exchanges with a total stranger, a 32-year-old man named Dominic Martin.
Using a threat of media exposure of the printed exchanges, Mr. Martin demanded that the priest leave an envelope containing $3,000 in a local restaurant lobby. The frightened priest, who never had a prior accusation, compounded his poor judgment by paying the demand. Soon after, another cash demand was made, but the priest finally called the police who set up a sting of their own. On January 24, 2003, Dominic Martin and his wife, Brianna, were arrested at the drop point, and charged with extortion.
The police report revealed that Mr. Martin had changed his name. His birth name was identified as Tod Biltcliffe, a man who, a decade earlier, obtained a lucrative settlement when he accused a New Hampshire priest of molesting him in the 1980s. At the time the priest protested that Mr. Biltcliffe was committing fraud and larceny. The Church settled anyway.
Biltcliffe’s claim was that when he was 15 years old, the priest fondled his genitals while the two were in a hot tub at a local YMCA. Curiously, the investigation file contained a transcript of a 1988 “Geraldo Rivera” show entitled “The Church’s Sexual Watergate.” One of the cases profiled was that of a young man who claimed that a priest fondled his genitals while the two were in a hot tub at a local YMCA.
The 1988 “Geraldo” transcript was a sensationalized account of clergy sex abuse cases from the 1970s and 1980s. The transcript is notable because it contains many of the same claims of exposing secret Church documents, archives, and episcopal cover-ups in 1988 that lawyers and reporters claim to have exposed in 2003.
Writer Jason Berry, and contingency lawyers Jeffrey Anderson and Roland Lewis all appeared live on “Geraldo” on November 14, 1988 to announce the existence of secret Church archives, cover-ups by bishops, and out-of-court settlements of Catholic clergy sex abuse claims across the country.
Jason Berry, who excoriates the Church and priesthood at every opportunity, actually defended, in 1988, the existence of so-called “secret” Church archives: “Canon law says that you have to have a secret archive in every diocese….That’s funny because I’ve been attacking the Church for three years on this…I want to express my own irony of [now] being in a position of defending the Church.”
I have been in prison for eleven years. As a priest, I cringed while the latest wave of abuse claims unfolded in the press in the last few years. Inmates often feel like victims, but some saw the proliferation of abuse claims as a lucrative scam and wondered why they were letting such an opportunity pass.
I have been repeatedly asked whether I would give the name of a priest who might have been present in someone’s childhood neighborhood, or if I thought the Church would quietly settle if a claim was made. When asked if the claim would be true, the answer is always the same: “Of course not!” One inmate reported that he was visited by his lawyer who asked if he is Catholic. The lawyer is alleged to have said: “If you want to accuse a priest of something, I can have $50-grand in your account by the end of the year.”
Another inmate told of his narcotics arrest by a detective who was apparently fielding cases for contingency lawyers. The young man reported that he was asked whether he wanted to accuse a priest who had been accused by others. The young man insisted there was nothing he could accuse the priest of, but the detective reportedly suggested: “That’s sort of beside the point, isn’t it? We’re talking a lot of money here.”
Yet another inmate claims that he indeed was molested by a priest and is awaiting settlement from a distant diocese. The man says little about the abuse beyond a vague and cursory suggestion that he somehow repressed it. He drones on incessantly, however, about plans for his expected windfall, about investment opportunities, and about how non-invasive the settlement process has been.
Another, rather insightful inmate remarked: “Let me get this straight. If I say that some priest touched me funny 20 years ago, I’ll be paid for it, I’ll be a victim, and my life will be HIS fault instead of mine! Do you have any idea how tempting this is?”
In a 2004 article in the Boston Phoenix, “Fleecing the Shepherds,” legal expert and author Harvey Silverglate cautioned against capitulating to significant numbers of questionable claims brought after the Church entered into huge blanket settlements. In some cases, such claims were deemed “credible”—the standard established for permanent removal of accused priests—with no other basis than their having been settled.
As accusations swept over the U.S. Church, few in the media dared write anything contrary to the tidal wave gaining indiscriminate momentum against the Church. A notable exception was the left-leaning Catholic magazine Commonweal, which editorialized: “Admittedly, perspective is hard to come by in the midst of a media barrage that is reminiscent of the day care sex abuse stories, now largely disproved, of the early nineties…All analogies limp, but it is hard not to be reminded of the din of accusation and conspiracy-mongering that characterized the anti-Communist witch hunts of the early 1950s.”
With media coverage of the unprecedented millions invested in blanket settlements, the trolling for claims and litigation continues unabated. Last year, a Boston area high school history teacher and coach of twenty years, a husband and father with no prior record or accusation, was caught up in an Internet sting by a detective posing on-line as a teenage boy cruising Internet chat rooms for sexual encounters.
The practice has netted the detective some 400 arrests, including—by his own estimation—1 priest, 6 police officers, and 18 public school teachers. The ex-teacher, now prison inmate, related that as the handcuffs were set upon him, before he was even led out of the YMCA to which he had been lured and arrested, the detective asked some curious questions: “Are you a Catholic?” “Yes.” “Were you ever an altar boy?” Another “yes.” “Were you ever molested by a priest?”
Father Gordon MacRae is in prison for claims alleged to have occurred in 1983, and for which he maintains innocence. His case was extensively analyzed in a two-part series in The Wall Street Journal (April 27/28,2005) by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Dorothy Rabinowitz.
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Fr. Richard John Neuhaus on Falsely Accused Priests
A Kafkaesque Tale
May 2008
First Things
Father Gordon MacRae, a priest of the Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire, has been in prison for more than twelve years, convicted of a sex-abuse crime that he insists he did not commit. He is sentenced to thirty-three years, and his claim of innocence precludes his being considered for parole.
So, you might think, most prisoners claim they are innocent. True enough, but in this case people of unimpeachable integrity and intelligence have closely examined the matter and believe he is telling the truth. MacRae admits to two earlier instances in which he was guilty of sexual misconduct but not to the charges on which he was convicted.
Among those who have critically examined the prosecution is Dorothy Rabinowitz, the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter of the Wall Street Journal who wrote a two-part expose of the way in which he was railroaded, with the apparent help of the Manchester diocese and its bishop, John McCormack, a former aide to Cardinal Law of Boston.
Now the friends of Father MacRae have created a website, GordonMacRae.net, which provides a comprehensive narrative of the case, along with pertinent documentation. It makes for engrossing reading and will arouse a sense of outrage among all but the morally somnolent. The website also suggests how people can help Father MacRae in his quest for justice, which is a long shot but not hopeless.
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Fr. Richard John Neuhaus 1936-2009
Fr. Richard John Neuhaus 1936-2009
by Joseph Bottum, First Things
Our great, good friend is gone.
Fr. Richard John Neuhaus slipped away today, January 8, shortly before 10 o’clock, at the age of seventy-two. He never recovered from the weakness that sent him to the hospital the day after Christmas, caused by a series of side effects from the cancer he was suffering. He lost consciousness Tuesday evening after a collapse in his heart rate, and soon after, in the company of friends, he died.
My tears are not for him—for he knew, all his life, that his Redeemer lives, and he has now been gathered by the Lord in whom he trusted.
I weep, rather for all the rest of us. As a priest, as a writer, as a public leader in so many struggles, and as a friend, no one can take his place. The fabric of life has been torn by his death, and it will not be repaired, for those of us who knew him, until that time when everything is mended and all our tears are wiped away.
Funeral arrangements are still being planned; information about the funeral will be made public shortly. Please accept our thanks for all your prayers and good wishes.
In Deepest Sorrow,
Joseph Bottum
Editor
Funeral Arrangements
A Funeral Mass will be celebrated for Father Richard John Neuhaus at the Church of the Immaculate Conception—414 E. 14th Street, New York City—on Tuesday, January 13, 2009, at 10 a.m.
Bishops and priests who wish to attend are asked please to inform Nathaniel Peters (bye-mail or phone 212-627-2288) by Sunday afternoon, January 11, at the latest.
A Christian wake service in the form of a Vigil for the Deceased will be celebrated at the Church of the Immaculate Conception on Monday evening, January 12, at 7:30 p.m. Clergy who plan to attend are asked to sit with the congregation.
In lieu of flowers, donations are requested for Fr. Neuhaus’ work, the Institute on Religion and Public Life, online at this page or by mail to:
Institute on Religion and Public Life 156 Fifth Avenue Suite 400 New York, NY 10010
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Russell Shaw: Nothing to Hide
Just a quick post today.
I was amused to hear Raymond Arroyo and Fr. Richard John Neuhaus discussing the last-minute decision to broadcast the Address to the Bishops of the United States. Apparently, the U.S. Bishops didn’t want cameras present in the Basilica of the National Shrine during the Holy Father’s address in Washington, DC last April . . . but the Holy See insisted that it be aired for all to see and hear. Russell Shaw devoted a book to bishops and secrecy released that same month. He’s the former communications director for the U.S Conference of Catholic Bishops.
I just read an article by Julia Duin of the Washington Times reviewing Shaw’s, Nothing to Hide, (Ignatius 2008), which addresses the issue of access. Anyway, the article is worth a read, and info on the book follows.
“As the premier Catholic communications professional in the United States, Russ Shaw is a longtime critic of clericalism, excessive secrecy, ‘happy talk’ and spin control in Catholic culture. He’s also an articulate and engaging writer with an unparalleled record of service to the Church. Nothing to Hide is a provocative, important book that explores the boundary between appropriate confidentiality in the Church, and the kind of secrecy that cripples Christian community life. It’s a must-read.”
+Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., Archbishop of Denver
Nothing to Hide: Secrecy, Communication, and the Communion in the Catholic Church
