‘Human justice’ for pervs: Pope
Sez it’s time abusers turned themselves in
Pope Francis commanded Friday that Catholic priests who molested and raped children turn themselves in to authorities to face “human justice.”
Francis promised the church would “never again” conceal such crimes, capping off a year in which several coverups rocked its ranks.
“Convert and hand yourself over to human justice — and prepare for divine justice,” he said. “Let it be clear that before these abominations the church will spare no effort to do all that is necessary to bring to justice whosoever has committed such crimes.”
Observers debated over exactly what Francis meant by the term “human justice,” with some reading it as a call to involve law enforcement and others interpreting it as a reference to church higherups.
The fire-and-brimstone edict came the same day New Yorkers learned allegations against a local priest had been substantiated by a churchsponsored “reconciliation” panel.
The Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program, created at the behest of the church’s New York Archdiocese, found allegations against the Rev. Donald Timone credible enough to award settlements to two alleged victims, the New York Times reported Friday.
At least one, Timothy Murphy, did not live long enough to see closure in the ordeal he experienced at Timone’s hands. Murphy committed suicide in 2015. His widow, Susan Cassinelli-Murphy, filed the claim with the panel after his death.
When Murphy was 13 or 14, Timone took him away from home with the permission of his mother, who believed he needed mentoring at the time, according to his widow. On more than one occasion, the priest invited him to his home for sleepovers where he used ointment and a vibrator on the boy.
The panel sent a settlement check to Murphy’s 63-year-old widow in May 2017, just two months after it awarded a payout to another man, who received $150,000 from the panel.
Despite the payments — and what might seem to a lay person an admission of culpability — the church still allows Timone, now 84, to celebrate Mass. He divides his time between St. Joseph’s Church in upstate New York and the Church of the Nativity in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.
Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the New York Archdiocese, noted the panel’s findings carry a different legal standard than those of an archdiocese review board that dismissed Murphy’s accusations in 2003.
But after the panel sent its settlement to his widow, that body is now reviewing the case for a second time, he said.
“We need to do all we can to answer this darkness we are currently facing,” he said when asked about the Murphy case and the Pope’s remarks Friday.
The full impact of Pope Francis’ speech is still unclear, but it will surely put pressure on local leaders like Timothy Cardinal Dolan, the head of the archdiocese.
Dolan lauded Timone as recently as 2013, in a Daily News op-ed for his work with Courage, a church program focused on helping people curb gay sexual impulses.
Murphy, who would have turned 64 this year, filed a police report against Timone in Dutchess County in 2002.