The dam is about to break

Church Militant has learned exclusively that the attorney general office of the state of New York is now outlining plans for a Pennsylvania-style grand jury report.

Before we get to that, it was just announced that the publisher of Cdl. Donald Wuerl's upcoming book has yanked the deal, canceling publication. The book had been titled What Do You Want to Know? and was described as Cdl. Wuerl's advice to everyday Catholics when inviting non-Catholics to friendship.

There are eight dioceses in the state of New York, including the archdiocese of New York, with 7.3 million Catholics throughout the state and initial reports indicate that sexual abuse and specifically cover-up of that abuse by bishops is every bit as bad as in the state of Pennsylvania.

Church Militant spoke with New York State Attorney General Barbara Underwood, who told us:

The Attorney General has directed her Criminal Division leadership to reach out to local District Attorneys — who are the only entities that currently have the power to convene a grand jury to investigate these matters — in order to establish a potential partnership on this issue.

In the wake of the release of the Pennsylvania grand jury report, speculation around the country has begun that grand juries should be convened in every state — an idea that fed-up faithful Catholics are now supporting publicly.

Brad Miner: "I'm in favor, frankly, of 50 grand juries, including, you know, we've already had one in Pennsylvania, but we need one in the District of Columbia too — so that makes 50. Every single state, we got to do this, and it's got to be the civil authorities, I'm sorry to say."

Joining Miner are the likes of Illinois State Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke, who was a member of the 2002 U.S. bishops' national review board. Burke says, "I think every state should convene a grand jury into this culture of secrecy that protected offenders at all costs."

Miner's and Burke's public sentiments may soon become a reality. In addition to the Pennsylvania grand jury, Nebraska is now sending signals that it too is prepping for the possible convening of its own grand jury. This as a result of revelations of homosexual predation on seminarians in the diocese of Lincoln.

But the eight Catholic dioceses in New York could prove to be a target-rich environment for any grand jury investigation.

Continued below in Comments 👇

42 comments

You are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

Gilderoy 6.7 years ago

Thank you, @Vindicator, for posting this stunning article. Sounds like the chickens are coming home to roost in NY where the art of cover-up has been perfected. I have a feeling it might be worse there than anywhere else, because of the confluence of dioceses and huge metropolitan areas. The seminaries are of particular interest: Immaculate Conception in Douglaston which had to be shut down temporarily because of an epidemic of STD's, and Immaculate Conception in Huntington, also the target of many rumors and allegations. There is, from stories I've heard for years, a large Lavender Mafia network in NY which has had a strangle hold on the area for decades. Bishop Murphy of the DRVC, and Cardinal Dolan, I suspect, were both selected for their Irish ability to cover up and obfuscate and are iron fists in velvet gloves, ruthlessly squashing all whistle blowers and non-team players.

I understand the new bishop of Rockville Centre Diocese, Bishop Barres, is thought to be a good man, who spends many hours in prayer and who has tried to reform the catechetical programs in the schools, etc., but his failure to remove Benestad is inexcusable. Apparently, the Vatican cleared Benestad, despite a Pennsylvania DA finding the victim's allegations to be credible, and a local Review Board, made up of lay experts, also cleared Benestad, so Bishop Barres lifted the ban he had placed on Benestad and allowed him to retire and move to Florida. Bishop Barres also failed to remove another priest, Fr. Lawrence, from the priesthood, despite the priest's confession of wrongdoing, and kept him in a "secure" and "monitored" facility, allegedly because he thought it would be safer for the public to keep him there.

Not a good outlook for Bishop Barres, and the Rockville Centre's whitewash job on their website is nauseating. The press spokesman, Sean Dolan, even made an attempt to deflect attention from Bishop Barres' troubles by a despicable red herring, bringing up the point that "there are survivors of abuse elsewhere in society":

"Bishop Barres has spent many years talking to and counselling the survivors of abuse (including the survivors of abuse elsewhere in society, who should not be forgotten). He is well aware of how devastating such abuse can be to survivors and their families."

It's very telling that Sean Dolan's press statement does not mention the case of Msgr. Benestad at all, focusing instead on Fr. Lawrence. The PA press conference specifically highlighted the case of Msgr. Benestad and the story of his abuse was so shocking and appalling, that failing to address Bishop Barres' involvement in that case on the DRVC website is a glaring omission. Why doesn't Sean Dolan mention the Benestad case and try to whitewash it in the same way the Fr. Lawrence case was?

Very interesting, and it doesn't look promising for Bishop Barres at all.

link