Jesuits Defy Order from Indianapolis Archbishop to Fire a Gay Teacher

Both the less than saintly Pope John Paul II and his successor, former Hitler youth Pope Benedict XVI stacked bishoprics across the globe with reactionaries who desired to take the Catholic Church backwards in time and keep women subjugated to men and gays stigmatized and marginalized. The Church remains saddled with many of these reactionary bishops and cardinals who seemingly prefer to drive members from the Church than face new scientific and medical knowledge and social enlightenment.  These reactionaries also seek to wage war with the Church's religious orders that do not fall directly under their leadership but instead have their own independent leadership.  One order, the Jesuits, has for centuries been the home of the Church's intellectuals and also the most educated of the Church's religious orders.  Now, this dichotomy within the Church has collided in of all places, Mike Pence's state of Indiana where a Jesuit run high school is defying a reactionary archbishop's order to fire a gay teacher.  NBC News looks at the conflict.  Here are highlights:

A Jesuit-run prep school in Indianapolis is defying a demand by the local archbishop that it fire a veteran teacher who is in a same-sex marriage, prompting the archdiocese to revoke recognition for the school as a Catholic institution.

In a letter to parents, the leaders of the Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School said Archbishop Charles Thompson’s “direct insertion into an employment matter of a school governed by a religious order is unprecedented.”

“After long and prayerful consideration, we determined that following the Archdiocese’s directive would not only violate our informed conscience on this particular matter, but also set a concerning precedent for future interference in the school’s operations,” school officials said.

The letter was signed by the school president, the Rev. William Verbryke, and the heads of the board of trustees, W. Patrick Bruen and Daniel M. Lechleiter.

They wrote that for 57 years, school leaders have decided who gets hired.

“Brebeuf Jesuit has respectfully declined the Archdiocese’s insistence and directive that we dismiss a highly capable and qualified teacher due to the teacher being a spouse within a civilly-recognized same-sex marriage,” they said in the letter.

The school leaders reassured parents that their stand “will not change the mission or operations of Brebeuf Jesuit” and insisted that “our identity as a Catholic Jesuit institution remains unchanged.”

“We will continue to offer a rigorous academic program that follows more than 450 years of Jesuit tradition and is committed to expansive and critical thinking, competent and compassionate ethical concern, creative and artistic expression, and excellence grounded in faith and the dignity of the human person,” they wrote.

The Archdiocese of Indianapolis said in a statement that a Catholic school is required to "clearly state in its contracts and ministerial job descriptions that all ministers must convey and be supportive of all teachings of the Catholic Church."

The battle over the gay teacher has been going on for two years.

Brian Paulson, who leads the Society of Jesus Midwest Province, which represents Jesuits in the Midwest, called the archdiocese’s move “disappointing.”

“In the summer of 2017, Brebeuf Jesuit became aware that one of its teachers entered into a civil marriage with a person of the same sex,” Paulson said in a statement. “This fact became publicly known via social media.”  When the archdiocese asked that the teacher’s contract not be renewed, Paulson said the school refused.  “The teacher in question does not teach religion and is a longtime valued employee of the school,” Paulson wrote.

Paulson said they will appeal the archdiocese's decision.

The Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest who is one of the leading advocates for LGBT Catholics, called the move by Brebeuf's leadership "courageous."

One of the top private schools in the city, Brebeuf Jesuit serves about 800 students in grades 9-12.

The Catholic Church needs to leave its 12th century dogma on sex and sexuality behind or else, over time, it will find itself a much smaller, Africa centered church.  Kudos to the school leadership for saying "no" to ignorance and bigotry. 

Jesuit Review: The Kavanaugh Nomination Must Be Withdrawn

Brett Kavanaugh attended Georgetown Prep - a school run by the Jesuit order of the Roman Catholic Church.  Not surprisingly, initially America, the official review of the Jesuit order in America - endorsed Kavanaugh's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.  Like the Catholic Church leadership the Jesuits want judges and justices who will give deference to - indeed, in my view, special rights - to adherents of discriminatory, ignorance embracing religious traditions.  Now, the editorial board of America has rescinded its endorsement of Kavanaugh and that "for the good of the country" Kavanaugh's nomination should be withdrawn.  I agree with the call for the nomination to be withdrawn not only because I believe that Kavanaugh has lied to Congress, is likely guilty of assault as alleged, and demonstrated by his behavior of Friday that he is utterly unfit temperamentally to sit on the nation's highest court.  A piece in the New York Times looks at the stunning reversal here.  Here are excerpts from America's call for Kavanaugh to withdraw his nomination:

Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee today clearly demonstrated both the seriousness of her allegation of assault by Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh and the stakes of this question for the whole country. Judge Kavanaugh denied the accusation and emphasized in his testimony that the opposition of Democratic senators to his nomination and their consequent willingness to attack him was established long before Dr. Blasey’s allegation was known.

Evaluating the credibility of these competing accounts is a question about which people of good will can and do disagree. The editors of this review have no special insight into who is telling the truth. If Dr. Blasey’s allegation is true, the assault and Judge Kavanaugh’s denial of it mean that he should not be seated on the U.S. Supreme Court. But even if the credibility of the allegation has not been established beyond a reasonable doubt and even if further investigation is warranted to determine its validity or clear Judge Kavanaugh’s name, we recognize that this nomination is no longer in the best interests of the country. While we previously endorsed the nomination of Judge Kavanaugh on the basis of his legal credentials and his reputation as a committed textualist, it is now clear that the nomination should be withdrawn.

[T]he question is not solely about Judge Kavanaugh’s responsibility, nor is it any longer primarily about his qualifications. Rather it is about the prudence of his nomination and potential confirmation. In addition to being a fight over policy issues, which it already was, his nomination has also become a referendum on how to address allegations of sexual assault.

When Republican leaders in the Senate refused even to hold hearings on the nomination of Judge Merrick Garland, they were not objecting to his qualifications or character but to the likely outcome of his vote on the court were he to be confirmed. When Senate Democrats were mostly united in opposition to Judge Kavanaugh well in advance of any hearings (and before any rumor of Dr. Blasey’s accusation was known), they were using the same calculus. While regrettable in both cases, such results are, as we have said before, the predictable outcome of the fact that “fundamental questions of social policy are increasingly referred to the court for adjudication as constitutional issues.”

What is different this time is that this nomination battle is no longer purely about predicting the likely outcome of Judge Kavanaugh’s vote on the court. It now involves the symbolic meaning of his nomination and confirmation in the #MeToo era. The hearings and the committee’s deliberations are now also a bellwether of the way the country treats women when their reports of harassment, assault and abuse threaten to derail the careers of powerful men.

Dr. Blasey's accusations have neither been fully investigated nor been proven to a legal standard, but neither have they been conclusively disproved or shown to be less than credible. Judge Kavanaugh continues to enjoy a legal presumption of innocence, but the standard for a nominee to the Supreme Court is far higher; there is no presumption of confirmability. The best of the bad resolutions available in this dilemma is for Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination to be withdrawn.

If Senate Republicans proceed with his nomination, they will be prioritizing policy aims over a woman’s report of an assault. Were he to be confirmed without this allegation being firmly disproved, it would hang over his future decisions on the Supreme Court for decades and further divide the country.

For the good of the country and the future credibility of the Supreme Court in a world that is finally learning to take reports of harassment, assault and abuse seriously, it is time to find a nominee whose confirmation will not repudiate that lesson.

New Lawsuit Alleges Jesuits Ignored Warnings About Predator Priest

Having just reached a near record $166 million settlement in the Pacific northwest, the Society of Jesus, a/k/a the Jesuit order has been hit with a new lawsuit in the Chicago area that alleges that leadership within the order ignored and/or kept secret numerous reports over a period of decades that a prominent priest was sexually abusing teenage boys. It's the same sick and familiar pattern that we have seen time and time again all around the globe where the sexual predators were/are protected by the Catholic Church while zero care or regard is shown to the young victims. As a parent, words do not adequately express the revulsion I feel for such falsely pious hypocrites who knowingly and callously endangered children and youths. These individuals and the Church hierarchy deserve no respect and no deference. Indeed, many of the "princes of the Church" ought to be behind bars. Here are highlights from the New York Times:
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Jesuit leaders in Chicago largely ignored or kept secret numerous reports, spanning four decades, that a prominent priest was sexually abusing teenage boys, lawyers for victims charged on Monday in a motion for punitive damages in a Chicago court.
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Included in the motion were more than 65 recently obtained church documents and depositions that, the lawyers said, demonstrated “a reckless disregard for the safety of others in the face of repeated reports of sexual misconduct” on the part of Chicago Jesuit leaders.
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The newly public documents date from the early 1960s, when a concerned Austrian priest, in imperfect English, first observed in a letter to Chicago Jesuits that Father McGuire, newly ordained and studying in Europe, had “much relations with several boys.” The reports extend into the last decade, when Father McGuire reportedly ignored admonitions to stop traveling with young assistants, molesting one as late as 2003, as law enforcement was closing in. The legal motion argues that Father McGuire’s superiors in Chicago turned “a blind eye to his criminal actions.”
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Terence McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability.org, a victim advocacy group that has long monitored the church’s response to sexual abuse charges, said that the series of warnings given to Jesuit leaders by parents and fellow priests was unusually long and clear.

“I have never seen such detailed and frequent notice received by the priest’s superiors, so many ‘directives’ regarding the priest’s future behavior, and so much evidence presented to his superiors that those directives were being violated, without the priest being removed from ministry,” Mr. McKiernan said. His group has posted a history of the case and many of the key documents.
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The motion filed on Monday charges that the church misled prosecutors in 2006, with its lawyers claiming that they had little information about the priest — despite the lengthy record of complaints.
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For about two decades, starting in the early 1980s, he was a spiritual adviser to Mother Teresa, who put him in charge of retreats for the nuns in her worldwide order, Missionaries of Charity. Several times each year, in India, the United States, Russia and other countries, he led retreats for the sisters. In these travels he routinely took along a teenage boy as an assistant,
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As late as 1998, the new documents show, the Chicago provincial wrote a letter of “good standing” for Father McGuire to allow him to minister in a diocese, stating that “there is nothing to our knowledge in his background which would restrict any ministry with minors.”
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Father McGuire was formally removed from the priesthood in February 2008 after a conviction in Wisconsin and after a federal indictment had been issued in Illinois.

Pope Palpatine Attacks British Equality Laws; Meanwhile New Abuse Scandal in Germany

For someone who ought to be preaching the Gospel message of love of neighbor, Benedict XVI, a/k/a Pope Palpatine, seems to surely have the message backwards. His message is consistently one of intolerance and a refusal to see the equal human dignity in all, gays on particular, but with women only a short distance behind. Palpatine is schedule to visit the UK this coming fall, but is already sending out coded anti-equality messages indicating that gays and women need to be told their place in the "natural law" scheme of things, and full equality with men - particularly the self-imposed "eunuch for the Kingdom" of the Catholic priesthood. Benedict seems unable to grasp that we are no longer living in the 13th century with its unenlightened view of women and created by God to have a different sexual orientation. Like so many self-righteous "Christians" Benedict presumes to tell God how people should be created. To me, it's hubris and blasphemy of the highest order. Here are some highlights from Peter Tachel's post on this issue:

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The Pope has criticised UK equality laws, including the Equality Bill that is currently before parliament. This attack comes ahead of the pontiff’s State Visit to Britain, scheduled for September this year.
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“Pope Benedict is unhappy with the new rights and protections afforded to women and LGBT people. He objects to the fact that religious institutions can no longer lawfully discriminate at will on the grounds of gender and sexual orientation,” said human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell of OutRage!
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"The Pope's criticism that British equality legislation 'violates the natural law' is a coded attack on the legal rights granted to women and gay people. It is a de facto defence of faith-based discrimination.
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“His ill-informed claim that our equality laws undermine religious freedom suggests that he supports the right of faith organisations to discriminate in accordance with their religious ethos. He seems to be defending discrimination by religious institutions and demanding that they should be above the law.
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“This outburst signals that Benedict is likely to make highly partisan political criticisms during his visit to the UK in September. Most British people will not welcome a meddlesome pontiff who opposes our equality laws. “They will especially resent the fact that the UK government is asking taxpayers to cough up around £20 million to finance his visit. This money would be far better spent on schools and hospitals," said Mr Tatchell.

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Meanwhile as Benedict takes shots at British laws, a new sex abuse scandal is coming to light, this time at an elite Jesuit school in Berlin, Germany. Not surprisingly, government authorities are finding that the Order's leadership did little or nothing to stop the serial abuse. Here are some highlights from the Washington Post:

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BERLIN -- Germany's top Jesuit apologized Monday for serial sexual abuse apparently committed by two priests at one of the country's most prestigious high schools, saying there was evidence of it for years but Jesuit officials did not "react the way it would have been necessary." At least 20 students were sexually abused by the two priests at Berlin's private Catholic Canisius Kolleg in the 1970s and 1980s,
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Dartmann conceded that the Jesuit order of Germany had had evidence of the sexual abuse cases since 1981, but had never informed parents, students or authorities. Such cases can no longer be prosecuted in Germany because of its statute of limitations, he said.
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Dartmann also said the two priests continued to sexually abuse boys and girls after being transferred from Canisius Kolleg to other Catholic schools and youth institutions in Germany, Mexico, Chile and Spain.
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It seems that once again, Pope Palpatine is in no position to be lecturing anyone on morality given his own moral bankruptcy and that of so many in the Church hierarchy.

More than 500 Abuse Claims Filed Against Jesuits

As the Roman Catholic Church continues to meddle in secular politics and strip LGBT Americans of civil legal rights, the rot at the heart of the institutional Church continues to show itself in ongoing sexual abuse claims ranging from Ireland to the USA to Australia. It is indeed a worldwide phenomenon that helps further prove that the policy of lies, obstruction of justice and callousness towards victims was in deed systemic. Why any politicians listen to the whining of Church hierarchy is dumbfounding. Instead they ought to be seeking criminal prosecutions against bishops and cardinals - and yes the current Pope. Perhaps it is a bit of divine justice that focus seems to be turning a bit back to the Church's despicable conduct. The false "men of God"truly need to be exposed for what they really are: arrogant, corrupt, amoral monsters who put money and having their wide asses kissed ahead of all else. Here are some highlights from a new Washington Post story:
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SPOKANE, Wash. -- More than 500 people in the Northwest filed claims against the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus in advance of a November deadline, alleging members of the Catholic order sexually abused them as children. The Spokesman-Review in Spokane reports the claims against the Jesuits span decades and range from Native Alaskan children to students at Spokane's Gonzaga Preparatory School.

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The Spokesman-Review has these further details:
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The Jesuits already have settled 200 additional sex-abuse claims. Among them were claims by 110 Alaska Natives, who settled for $50 million last year. About $45 million of that was paid by insurers. The Jesuits claim to have so far spent about $25 million – depleting the treasury of the province. In bankruptcy documents the Jesuits claim to have $4.8 million in assets and liabilities of $61.8 million.
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Yet many of the 500 alleged victims left to seek payouts in Bankruptcy Court assert the province remains a wealthy organization that misstated its financial standing in Bankruptcy Court records. They contend the Jesuits control and own Gonzaga University, Gonzaga Preparatory School, Seattle University and other schools and properties.
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The university steadfastly denies any liability for the actions of Jesuits who sexually abused children, including former university president John P. Leary, who sexually abused boys until Spokane police gave him a 24-hour ultimatum in 1969 to leave town or face arrest. Leary fled, and the Jesuit hierarchy relocated him.
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Again, why does anyone listen to these pillars of deceit and corruption? Politicians ought to respond to the Church's whining by repeatedly bringing up the sex abuse scandal. Or better yet, launching a federal investigation into the Church in the USA.

Priest Abuse - Absolute Power

Newsweek has a sizable article (http://www.newsweek.com/id/93626) on the Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal in Alaska that adds details to a post I did some time back. I welcome such articles in national publications like Newsweek in the hope that sooner or later lay people in the Church and the larger society will wake up and demand a complete house cleaning within the Church. Naturally, I am not holding my breath awaiting that day's arrival, but the more coverage there is of the Church's dirty, disgusting history, the better in my view. Such disclosures should be thrown in the face of Pope Benedict XVI and the other senior clerical frauds who live like potentates and pretend to be pious and religious yet close their eyes to what has gone on for decades, if not centuries, and do nothing. Here are some highlights:

Like most other children, he also spent many days inside the weather-beaten little Catholic church, helping the Jesuit missionaries who held such powerful sway over Eskimo life. That meant doing what you were told—even if it was wrong—and staying silent about it. For Cheemuk, now 53, the past was buried for decades, through a lifetime of struggling with shame, anger and alcoholism. "I remember Mom asked me why there was blood on my underclothes," he said one recent frigid night in his cramped house in the Eskimo village. His sat alongside his wife, sometimes breaking into tears. "I was afraid to tell her what happened. I thought I might go to jail."

More than 110 children in Eskimo villages claim they were molested between 1959 and 1986, raped or assaulted by 12 priests and three church volunteers. Families and victims believe that another 22 people were sexually abused by clergy members but have since killed themselves.

Chris Cooke, a partner in an Anchorage law firm that has represented Eskimo victims, voices outrage over the staggering level of abuse by priests and church volunteers. "They had absolute power over the people and the culture," says Cooke. "They had language power. They had political power. They had racial power. They had the power to send you to hell. There was nowhere for victims to turn." Chase Hensel, a retired anthropologist and expert on Yupik Eskimo culture, says the lasting damage cannot be overstated. "You see the alcoholism, the severe mental problems, people in and out of jail," he says, "and you wonder, how do you put Humpty Dumpty back on the wall?"

Patrick Wall, a former Benedictine monk and Catholic priest who has served as a consultant to Roosa and other lawyers in the Alaska suits, said the Jesuits knew these missionaries were predators. These priests "had abused elsewhere," he said, "and then were unleashed in the most uncontrolled environment."

Broken and ruined lives, and no one in high authority within the Church has ever been punished. Benedict XVI and his predecessors are nothing but fraudulent hypocrites. Why anyone still gives them any deference whatsoever is dumbfounding.

More Sex Scandals Rock Mega Church and Jesuits

First, there is the developing story on MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21888916/) about the sex scandal overtaking an Atlanta megachurch leader in mega-sized sex scandal - seems the Archbishop slept with brother’s wife and fathered her child who is now a pastor at the church himself. Here are some highlights:

DECATUR, Ga. - The 80-year-old leader of a suburban Atlanta megachurch is at the center of a sex scandal of biblical dimensions: He slept with his brother's wife and fathered a child by her. Members of Archbishop Earl Paulk's family stood at the pulpit of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit at Chapel Hill Harvester Church a few Sundays ago and revealed the secret exposed by a recent court-ordered paternity test. In truth, this is not the first — or even the second — sex scandal to engulf Paulk and the independent, charismatic church. But this time, he could be in trouble with the law for lying under oath about the affair. The living proof of that lie is 34-year-old D.E. Paulk, who for years was known publicly as Earl Paulk's nephew.

The Archbishop has also admitted affair to the church last year and the archbishop, his brother and the church are being sued by former church employee Mona Brewer, who says Earl Paulk manipulated her into an affair from 1989 to 2003 by telling her it was her only path to salvation. Earl Paulk admitted to the affair in front of the church last January.

At its peak in the early 1990s, the Church claimed about 10,000 members and 24 pastors and was a media powerhouse. By soliciting tithes of 10 percent from each member's income, the church was able to build a Bible college, two schools, a worldwide TV ministry and a $12 million sanctuary the size of a fortress.

Meanwhile according to MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21886273/), the Jesuits have settled yet another sex abuse case involving the Roman Catholic Church, this time arising from the abuse of Alaska Natives. Naturally, and all too typically with the Catholic Church, the story lacks any reports that anyone in authority positions will suffer as a result of the abuse scandal. Here are some story highlights:

Anchorage, Alaska - For more than three years attorney Ken Roosa has been trying to get compensation for 110 Alaska Natives who claim church clergy violated a sacred trust and sexually abused them. "They intended to go to their grave with these secrets and there came a time in their life when they could no longer keep it a secret," he said.

Roosa announced Sunday that a $50 million settlement had been reached between his clients and the Society of Jesus, Oregon Province. The settlement amounts to the largest ever reached with a single religious order. Each victim should receive an average settlement of about $450,000, Roosa says, although that amount will vary depending on the severity of each case.

The largest case involved 55 men who say Deacon Joseph Lundowski raped them repeatedly in the small villages of St. Michaels, Stebbins, and Hooper Bay. The Jesuits sent the alleged abusers, including Lundowski and several other priests and deacons, into Alaskan communities. Meanwhile, cases against the Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks, a co-defendant in all of the cases, remain unresolved. The Diocese owned and managed the churches the alleged Jesuit abusers were sent to. Robert Hannon, special assistant to the Bishop of the Fairbanks Diocese, said Sunday word about the settlement with the Jesuits gives the Diocese hope for a settlement of its own.