Today we have a pair of stories about the Catholic Church that show the continuation of a sad trend--covering up for rogue priests. First...
Santa Rosa Bishop Daniel Walsh said it didn't occur to him to immediately report to police that priest Xavier Ochoa had admitted sexual misconduct with young boys, as required by law.
Walsh said his first concern was to remove Ochoa from any contact with children and said he was not focused on making a report. It wasn't until four days after the admission that a diocese lawyer notified the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department.
By the time deputies began looking for him, Ochoa had fled. He is believed to be in Mexico.
As for calling authorities sooner, Walsh said, "It didn't even cross my mind. But when you're dealing with a crisis, you don't think about those things. I wanted to make sure that he didn't function as a priest, so he didn't have access to kids."
The Sonoma County District Attorney's Office has ordered an investigation into whether the bishop and other Roman Catholic Church officials violated the state law that requires immediate notification by telephone of sex abuse suspicions.
When Bishop Walsh arrived at the Santa Rosa diocese six years ago, it was struggling with sexual (and financial) scandals. Clearly folks hoped such ugliness was behind them. Yet we're supposed to believe that Walsh and the diocese learned nothing from the process? The Bishop claims he ensured that Ochoa no longer had access to children, but that somehow didn't include anyone keeping watch on him. Let's hope this isn't another example of an underground railroad for perverted priests (previous blogs here and here).
The various felonies Ochoa has been charged with include "lewd acts with a child, forcible sodomy and oral copulation" with three victims...whose attorney says there are as many as nine victims. The details of victim #3 are grizzly. The diocese notified Child Protective Services the day before it faxed notification to the Sheriff's Department. It looks like all Walsh can be charged with is "failing to immediately report allegations of sex abuse," a misdemeanor.
The following cover-up involves a rather different scenario.
A priest who resigned from a church in an affluent Connecticut community misspent up to $1.4 million in parishioner donations to lead a life of luxury with another man, according to a church-directed investigation.
The Rev. Michael Jude Fay spent church money on limousines, stays at top hotels, jewelry, Italian clothing and a Florida condominium shared with the other man, auditors hired by the diocese found. About half the money he spent was kept in a secret bank account, according to their report, which was mailed Friday to 1,700 parishioners of the Darien church and obtained in advance by The Associated Press.
Bridgeport Bishop William Lori, who ordered the investigation by Deloitte Financial Advisory Services, said he was shocked and angered by the findings. The report also was sent to federal authorities.
...
The report describes a parish finance council that did not meet regularly in recent years, largely because of Fay's health and absences from the parish. Fay was diagnosed with cancer in 2001 and frequently cited his health when asked about church finances, the report states.
Lori has faced criticism for his handling of the scandal, especially when it emerged that another priest and the church bookkeeper hired a private investigator to look into Fay. The pair said they hired the investigator in May after they met with Lori and Fay was not removed, according to the report.
Lori said after he was made aware of potential financial misconduct in late April he took swift action to stop Fay from using church credit cards and then to force his resignation.
Fay is a 55-year-old priest who'd been at the Darien parish for 15 years and spent his entire career in the SW corner of Connecticut. For at least several of those years, he's been seeing a Philadelphia wedding planner a year his junior named Clifford Martell...though he often goes by the last name of Fantini. For a man who knew he couldn't come out of the closet, Fay wasn't exactly discrete...many examples here.
Last October is when Bishop Lori says he became aware of financial problems at the Darien church...though there certainly were suspicions within the parish before then. Bishop Lori left Fay in charge, claiming he thought it might be "mismanagement" or "inattention to administration." Over the next few months, the parish check register shows several questionable expenditures. Meanwhile, the parish hadn't paid its cathra draticum (7 percent tax on weekly donations) for several months.
And then in late March (from this link)...
Father Fay wrote to a few of the parish's wealthiest families. "I am privately writing to a small group of households to ask you a very special favor," his solicitation letter began. "Throughout the course of this past year, many unexpected and difficult bills have thrown our parish coffers into turmoil."
"Would you please consider donating $50,000 to St. John Church now," the letter continues, "so that I can get us back on our feet while the future plans are designed?"
"Your generosity is legend," the letter says. "Your kindness and support is so appreciated. I absolutely do not enjoy this part of my 'job' but I must ask."
A small church that was receiving $1 million in donations per year was constantly being called by creditors. It hadn't paid its employee medical plan or self-insurance premiums for several months and was 18 months behind on a small bank loan. Finally on April 28, an associate pastor (Rev. Michael Madden) and the parish bookkeeper (Bethany D'Erario) took the financial records to the diocese and spoke at length with the chief financial officer. Yet on May 9, it was clear to them that Fay had kept his job.
So, Rev. Madden and D'Erario decided to use their own money to hire a private detective. On May 17, that private detective announced that after doing a partial check of just two years of church records, he'd found at least $200,000 of improper expenditures, most of them on Fantini. So, the detective took the records to the local police. Bishop Lori asked for and Rev. Fay provided his resignation later that day. The diocese now says that it doesn't know where Fay is and can only contact him via his attorney...but it's providing him a "modest stipend" for living expenses. From this link...
On May 21, the Sunday after Fay's resignation, Lori attended the 10 a.m. Mass at St. John's to apologize to parishioners. During the homily, Lori told parishioners a "considerable portion" of their offerings had been used to fund a lifestyle that no follower of Christ, particularly a priest, should lead.
"The priesthood is a higher calling, so a priest is required, at a minimum, to lead a moral life and follow the teachings of the church," McAleer said Friday. "Clearly, that wasn't the case with Father Fay."
Bishop Lori apologized to the parishioners, condemning the gay priest's lifestyle. Bishop Walsh maintained a public silence about his child molesting priest until the pressure got so great that he started defending himself as noted above, including highlighting his "zero tolerance policy for child abuse." Something is really wrong with this picture.
When Rev. Madden admitted to the parishioners that it was he and D'Erario who hired the private detective, Bishop Lori got very angry at him for going outside of church channels. However, the parishioners turned out in force to support Madden, fearing that the diocese would soon quietly fire him. Both he and D'Erario still have their jobs, at least at the moment.
Back to the initial article on Fay...
The report, which was limited to the past six years, calculated the "potential financial loss" at $1.4 million. The review also identified an additional $350,000 deposited in Fay's personal account, but could not determine the source of the money.
...
Fay shopped at Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom, drove a Jaguar, attended a sports club, bought jewelry from Cartier, spent $130,000 for limo rides for himself and his mother and stayed at hotels such as the Ritz Carlton, Hotel De Paris and the Four Seasons Hotel, the auditors found. He spent tens of thousands of dollars on home furnishings and meals and more than $20,000 to mark the 25th anniversary of his ordination, according to the report.
Fay paid Fantini and his production firm $10,000, claiming the money was for video filming and decorations for the church. No invoices were supplied to verify the claim, the report said.
Fay also invested in a Philadelphia condo with Fantini and said some of the furniture he bought was used in Fantini's residence.
The report also cites $257,000 for the purchase of the Florida property and $87,000 to rent an apartment in New York. Fay said he rented the apartment while he was treated for cancer there, but later admitted he began renting the apartment before he was diagnosed with cancer, the report said.
Too bad the Catholic Church can't (and wouldn't) put the embezzled money from Darien towards helping the victims in Santa Rosa. To bad the Church's natural inclination continues to be to cover up rather than confront issues like these.
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