Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Can this be true?

A reader forwarded this to me. I do not know if it is true or not, but I thought I would share it with you...

Did Donald Wuerl cooperate with the Archdiocese of Boston and permit known pedophiles to enter or remain in the Pittsburgh Diocese? If so, were other pedophiles admitted to Serra Catholic High School and other Catholic institutions? Was it Headmaster Sysol’s job to keep an eye on Brother Ghastin and possibly other pedophile clergy from Boston? Knowing what we know now about the Archdiocese of Boston clergy abuse scandal, anything is possible.

For more, click here.

Update (5:50pm):

One of my regular readers sent me a comment but I do not believe I can post all of it. So, I am posting only the first paragraph. If he/she give permission to post all, I will. I agree with these comments completely because in many instances, our bishops were lead to believe that if you took them out of the situation, they would change. We have now learned the lesson the hard way that moving only causes widespread damage:

Very sad story. One thing that I would like to see investigated and brought to light is that the psychologists and psychiatrists at the institutions that were dealing with these offending priests (most cases were not pedophilia because the victims were post-pubescent) recommended that the offenders were given positions of trust in order to rebuild their self-esteem. Yes, it was the recommendation of the mental health professionals that resulted in the quiet shuffling of abusers. Unfortunately, when the Archdiocese of Washington wanted to show these records during the abuse trials a few years ago, the hospitals immediately sent their army of lawyers and the records were kept sealed under doctor-patient confidentiality rules. In the end, those who were ultimately responsible for the cover up, were left scott free. This is the case in Washington and I don't know the details on Boston or Pittsburgh but I would not be surprised if they are similar.

10 comments:

Patrick Pontillo, Captain Reality Check said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Patrick Pontillo, Captain Reality Check said...

I forgot to include one more pivotal link. It is the link to the actual photo-copy of the December 6, 1989 issue of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. That is the issue which initially reported the attempted murder and successful suicide that transpired in the presence of approximately 40 Serra Catholic High School students.

The article begins on the front page (upper right hand section) of that issue, and it ends further back in the paper. The front page makes mention of "Franciscan Brother Kenneth Ghastin who suffered an apparent heart attack shortly after hearing of the shooting."

As a reminder, Ghastin remained in the Pittsburgh diocese anywhere between 3 to 3 3/4 years after Wuerl was installed as Pittsburgh's Latin Rite Catholic bishop.

It is FREE to view that issue; at least at the time of this writing.

Here is the Post Gazette link:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=evANAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ZW4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=2206%2C1244280

Anonymous said...

The extremist and liar Mike Ference operates under several names Atlantic America. He doesn't write to help abused children, but to boost his own ego and possibly get a check from the church. He pimps his own son. He lies and uses inflammatory language to motivate those truely affected by these criminals. He is a liar just like the priests he is attacking. No one has really gone after him because he is a lightweight. If you investigated the case, you would see he lies about facts, and he twists the truth into a work of fiction. A work of fiction that comes from his head. You write statements that are word for word like his. Maybe you are are him. That would explain why this sounds like it was written by a lightweight.

A WASHINGTONDC CATHOLIC said...

To the last Anon:

Sorry, I am not Mr. Ference. I have never met him and have only heard once (at least officially in writing) from him. If Atlantic America is him, I do not know.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will know that I have been writing for almost 2 years and live in the Archdiocese of Washington DC.

I thank you for reading (if if you do attempt to insult me) and hope that you will come back again.

Patrick Pontillo, Captain Reality Check said...

A qualifying statement needs to be made concerning the saboteur who obsessively wrote against the Michael Ference whose son received a high speed bullet in the back of his head while seated on a Pittsburgh diocesan school bus in 1989.

For the record, Michael Ference is NOT Atlantic America. Proof that Ference is NOT Atlantic America exists in the fact that Atlantic America works have covered topics ranging from WWII to Medicine to Church Corruption to the Trade Balance Deficit to Humor Clean Enough to Eat off of. Michael Ference only wrote of things pertaining to his son's shooting, to his marketing company, and to the Pittsburgh area rust belt town where Ference lives.

All of the Atlantic America works were constructed on the Carolina coastline, as much as is being written this comment. Michael Ference, on the other hand, wrote his pieces in a town made famous by the Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep movie, the Deer Hunter --- Clairton, Pennsylvania.

Atlantic America writings are even on display in a British aviation museum, located in eastern England, due to the Atlantic America publisher's knowledge of the WWII European air war and due to his personal ownership of WWII era photographs. Mike Ference is not comprehensively versed in any element of WWII history, as far as I know.

The Atlantic America publisher was first published in a Florida based literary anthology as far back as 1979. He was published as far north as Baltimore, in a 1998 anthology which also contained the works of a number of laureates. Mike Ference was not in the academic literary world at any time in his life, as far as I know. In fact, the Atlantic America publisher personally knew laureates in his lifetime, even having conversed with them at their homes. He even met a nationally distributed author by accident in a Trappist monastery where the Atlantic America publisher was a long-term guest.

The Atlantic America publisher is an inductee to the National Language Honors Society, the general academic collegiate level National Honors Society, and the International High IQ Society. Mike Ference has a bachelor's degree in Sociology from Pitt.

The Atlantic America publisher and Mike Ference are from two entirely different worlds.

Most importantly, the Atlantic America publisher underwent the death of his father in 2009. He is very much aware of how anonymous commentators can desecrate someone's family name on the internet. Being that he is not going to tolerate the desecration of his father's last name, so soon after his father's death, if you want to know the actual name of the Atlantic America publisher, you are going to have to travel to an aviation museum in eastern England, or else have extensive knowledge of Maryland and Floridian literary publications.

Thank you

Patrick Pontillo, Captain Reality Check said...

There is a statement on this comment board which needs to be clarified, because it is not correct. It appears in the first comment at "Step 1." It goes as follows:

It was previously mentioned that Brother Kenneth Ghastin was accused of molesting two youths in the 1970s. However, the two individuals didn't make their accusations until the very early 1990s.

This means that it wasn't established on paper that anyone knew of any molestation allegation against Kenneth Ghastin at any time in the 1970s or 1980s. At least when it comes to the paperwork, this is so.

Anonymous said...

Part 2 of a Two Part Comment:

Yes, the students of Immaculata High School are to be lauded, and Fr. Pat's 21 should join forces with the Immaculatans, due to this realized sense of mission. The practice of nationwide foreign slave labor importation was the single most irresponsible economic policy in history. And it accelerated during the Clinton years. The hypocrisy of Clinton was that the Democratic Party was allegedly the labor friendly party. He let labor be abused.

Take note that the Bill Clinton who hailed from a former confederate slave state did not object to the practice of foreign slave labor profiteering. Some things don't quickly change. Also take note that this comment is being written in a different former confederate slave state, and this particular state burned with the fury of General William Tecumseh Sherman.

The point to mentioning this is that the South has had its modern version of the task master (Clinton) and it has the modern version of the Abolitionist. We have been importing appliances, clothing, toys, etc without equally exporting any types of goods, as if we were an impoverished third world nation. Thus, we are en route to becoming a third world nation.

Most importantly, the sin involving very low wage sweatshop labor importation is a sin that cries to Heaven for Vengeance. Added to that is the fact that Obama was heard on radio saying that he is not not NOT going to oppose the practice of importation from a ruthless slave labor China. Obama's obsession with elective abortion was intolerable enough. Now, he will support, according to a radio excerpt, a third sin which cries to Heaven for Vengeance. Willful murder and the Sin of Sodom are the other two he supports.

How is it that a man half African in his DNA can stand the idea of any form of slave labor practice? You would have to have an emotional makeup made out of arctic ice, in order to be that unaffected by widespread human suffering. Malachi Martin advised Americans to avoid interacting with the modern Chinese regimes. About the Chinese powers that be, Malachi simply said, "They're vicious."

As far as concerns Wuerl, he could have been a true hero, instead of the artificially contrived Zero Tolerance Hoax he turned out to be, if he responded to a few Pittsburgh area pleas to have him speak out against foreign sweatshop labor profiteering --- and to then start at least one Catholic apostolate dedicated to ending that crime. A priest stationed at Pittsburgh's only "premier" Catholic university requested him to do that which was Wuerl's inexcusable obligation. Wuerl ignored that university priest. The Thomas Merton people kept trying to get Wuerl to finally become a man and speak out. He kept ignoring them. In fact, the US Supreme Court briefs filed against Wuerl in 2002 were an ultimate result of Wuerl refusing to grant an apostolate dedicated to ending the sweatshop importation scandal. The matter involving the retaliation of Wuerl's former personal secretary was included in those court briefs as a secondary concern.

Wuerl could have become an indelible hero in this matter, because he was in Pittsburgh, the quintessential union and labor town. In fact, the Steelworkers' headquarters is very close to the Pgh Diocesan Building. Wuerl's sin of deliberate indifference in this matter should result in him being condemned to extremely low waged sweatshop labor for the rest of his life. Let's see how much he likes it.

Anonymous said...

I had some experience with this character in the mid 1970's. Some of us called Bro Kenneth "Drop your drawers Kenneth." His MO was to invite students to the rectory on a Sunday (Telling the respective parents that you needed special "counseling"), advising you that you may have a vocation. He blah blah blahed through the vows of poverty and obedience and went onto his version of chastity. The basic was that he had to test us to see if we had the strength to give up sex and told us that we had to take off our pants, talk about our "masturbatory" fantasies, etc. Three of us compared notes when in college and racked him up as just a whack job. If you told him no, he would just move on to a new victim. The several victims who have COME FORWARD are the tip of the iceberg of this man's depredations.

Anonymous said...

I had some experience with this character in the mid 1970's. Some of us called Bro Kenneth "Drop your drawers Kenneth." His MO was to invite students to the rectory on a Sunday (Telling the respective parents that you needed special "counseling"), advising you that you may have a vocation. He blah blah blahed through the vows of poverty and obedience and went onto his version of chastity. The basic was that he had to test us to see if we had the strength to give up sex and told us that we had to take off our pants, talk about our "masturbatory" fantasies, etc. Three of us compared notes when in college and racked him up as just a whack job. If you told him no, he would just move on to a new victim. The several victims who have COME FORWARD are the tip of the iceberg of this man's depredations.

JBQ said...

The Father Guarnizo case on the heels of one regarding Sister Joyce Volplini leave no doubt that Cardinal Wuerl is gay. Malachi Martin wrote such as well. As a Navy vet who was stationed in Charleston which at that time was under the jurisdiction of Wuerl as the ordinary in Pittsburgh, I can tell you of the gay culture among the priests there. In fact, Joseph Barnardin started his career there and without a doubt was also among the gay network. JPII turned down Wuerl for advancement which was overturned by a more sympathetic Benedict.