Virginia Priest Who Headed Child Protection Office Accused of Abuse

A couple of news stories underscore the continued moral bankruptcy of the Catholic Church leadership which continues to push anti-gay and anti-modernity jihads while continuing to ignore the sexual predators within the ranks of the priesthood. The latter problem is highlighted news coverage about the Catholic priest who headed the Diocese of Northern Virginia (an very reactionary diocese by the way) office responsible for protecting children from sexual abuse who has now been accused of abuse in the late 1990's. That's right, the late 1990's not some 30 or 40 years ago or more. Meanwhile, the Vatican is cracking down on American nuns who are not sufficiently anti-modernity and anti-gay. The only bright spot in this abysmal picture is that parishes are refusing to climb aboard the hierarchy's anti-gay train and one pastor received a standing ovation from his parishioners when he announced that the parish would not participate in the anti-same sex marriage campaign in Washington State. First these highlights from the Washington Post on the accused sexual predator:

The Catholic priest who headed the diocese’s Northern Virginia office responsible for protecting children from sexual abuse was placed on administrative leave Wednesday while he is investigated for alleged sexual misconduct with a teenage boy.

From 2004 until last year, [Rev. Terry W.] Specht was director of the Office of Child Protection and Safety, which trains church employees and volunteers to spot abuse and monitors youth activities “to ensure that all contact with young people is appropriate,” its Web site says.

Specht, a native of Pennsylvania, became a priest in Arlington in 1996. He worked with multiple ministries focused on youths. From 2000 to 2004, he was chaplain and assistant principal at the 1,000-student Paul VI Catholic High School, one of four Catholic secondary schools in the diocese.

Specht has been more visible than many priests, and until late Wednesday he maintained a Twitter account on which he posted and commented on various conservative issues, poking fun at President Obama and more liberal Catholics who support gay rights. The photo on the account was of a bulldog.

Neither he [diocesan spokesman Michael Donohue] nor the police would specify if the allegation involved one incident or more, or what sort of evidence was presented. Donohue said that an accusation itself would not automatically trigger the administrative-leave process. “The bishop has looked at the information provided from the very beginnings of this and made a determination that it was best to put Rev. Specht on the administrative leave,” he said.

Becky Ianni, an advocate for clergy sex-abuse survivors in Northern Virginia, said the allegation is disturbing. “It’s just frightening to think that this is the person educating people and perhaps he is a predator,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post is reporting on the Vatican's crack down on American nuns - who in my opinion seem to get the true Gospel message far better than the power and control hungry bitter old men in dresses in Rome. Here are some highlights on this sad issue:

WASHINGTON — The Vatican has launched a crackdown on the umbrella group that represents most of America’s 55,000 Catholic nuns, saying that the group was not speaking out strongly enough against gay marriage, abortion and women’s ordination.

Rome also chided the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) for sponsoring conferences that featured “a prevalence of certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.”

The directive, which follows a two-year investigation by Rome, also comes as the Vatican appeared ready to welcome a controversial right-wing splinter group of Catholic traditionalists back into the fold, possibly by giving the group a special status so that they can continue to espouse their old-line rites and beliefs.

It added that “crucial” issues like “the church’s biblical view of family life and human sexuality, are not part of the LCWR agenda in a way that promotes church teaching. Moreover, occasional public statements by the LCWR that disagree with or challenge positions taken by the bishops, who are the church’s authentic teachers of faith and morals, are not compatible with its purpose.” Many bishops were angered when LCWR and Network, along with the Catholic Health Association, endorsed President Obama’s health care reform over the bishops’ objections.

In 2009 the Vatican launched a wide-ranging investigation of all women religious in the U.S., prompted by concern over their commitment to doctrine and tradition as well as the sharp decline in vocations. The number of nuns in America has dropped from 179,954 in 1965 to just 55,000 today.

I suspect the Vatican's actions will only serve to further reduce vocations. I truly look forward to the day Hispanic Catholic open their eyes to the moral bankruptcy of the Vatican and join the exodus of American Catholics from the Church. Once this happens, the Vatican will find it difficult to hide the step decline in membership in the American Church which has been masked by the influx of new Hispanic immigrants.