Can archbishop handle the truth?
Dear Pope Francis,
You made a mistake.
Seventeen years of Catholic education conditioned me to respect clergy. It also taught me to consider multiple perspectives. To question authority. To seek the truth.
I believe you erred by appointing Baltimore Archbishop William Lori to investigate claims that former West Virginia Bishop Michael J. Bransfield sexually harassed adults.
Lori pledged “to conduct a thorough investigation in search of the truth.”
He’s not the right person for the job.
Thankfully, the attorney general’s office is looking into the case as well. But I’ve had trouble with Lori and the truth in the past.
During his 12 years as head of the Diocese of Bridgeport, he did make some positive contributions, including the introduction of various financial controls. But Lori should have spotted at least one car that was already broken before it crashed.
In that case, another priest blew the whistle on the Rev. Michael Jude Fay, who was pastor of St. John’s Church in Darien. Fay used church credit cards to shop at the likes of Tiffany and go on a $23,329 spending spree at Ethan Allen furniture.
Fay had the nerve to steal more than $1 million from parishioners, then appeal to them for donations to pay his legal bills.
In the interest of truth, I do have a, ahem, confession to make. I may be oversensitive to lies Lori spread about a (follow-up) story we wrote. Our newspaper was the target of his outrage, which rivaled a Serena Williams meltdown with salty language.
His office asked to see questions in advance, which were provided. Lori’s office canceled the interview and deemed the line of questioning condemnatory. We were interested in process. How was the Church trying to get to the truth?
Accusations that we were conducting a witch hunt turned surreal when a few priests joined Lori in responding to the story before it appeared. We were told that he’d given them a script condemning the newspaper. At least one decried it from the pulpit. Another put his retort in the church bulletin. Lori wrote a statement that we put on the front page when the story ran the following Sunday.
All of this happened in 2006, four years after Lori appointed Fay to the diocesan Sexual Misconduct Review Board. Fay’s lavish spending of church funds was a mockery of his somber duties.
Lori is no shamus. But Vito Colucci is. Colucci, a Stamford private investigator, dug up the dirt on Fay.
When I told Colucci on Friday of Lori’s new assignment, he responded, “He’s trying to act like a PI? Are you kidding me? I do not trust this guy at all. He’s clueless.”
The whistle-blower, Michael Madden, was chastised by Lori for hiring Colucci and left the priesthood.
Several Fairfield County priests were eventually dismissed and/or convicted for sexual misconduct during those years, but Lori seemed more interested in following the money than the more heinous crimes.
He did help craft the so-called zero-tolerance policy regarding such matters, though we seem to have different concepts of math.
Sixteen years ago, when U.S. bishops created the Dallas Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People to combat clerical sex abuse, Lori successfully advocated for the flawed reasoning that bishops should be exempt, according to reports from Catholic news agencies. Ultimately, that included one of the document’s other framers, former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, now disgraced by accusations of sexual abuse.
Here in the Diocese of Bridgeport, Bishop Frank Caggiano has — thankfully — gone rogue. On Sept. 7, he announced several initiatives, including the declaration that “no one is above the law, including the bishop.” So, until the rest of the Church and nation catch up, Caggiano subjected himself to investigation by an independent board from outside the diocese if he is ever accused of misconduct or failing to act on allegations of abuse.
Caggiano also ordered an independent review of abuse within the diocese as well as an audit of the source of funding for financial settlements to victims. These are records Lori once sought to seal.
I’m not suggesting Caggiano get the West Virginia assignment. Personally, I’d assign nuns before priests (I could never get anything past them). But Lori’s resume makes him the wrong guy for the job.
A probe is never handled best from within, whether it involves schools, municipalities or police. The ideal investigator needs to be from outside the Church. Victims — and the many good priests out there — deserve a process the public can put faith in.
The truth can lead to trust, to healing, to forgiveness. But first, you need to let in light from the outside.
Probes are never handled well from within, whether it involves schools, municipalities or police.