The Pennsylvania Truth: John XXIII, Paul VI, and John Paul II Were No Saints

This post, from Rorate, just reinforces the opinion I expressed earlier today on the video from Chevalier Charles Coulombe, Chevalier Charles Coulombe on the Canonisation of John Paul II,

Personally, whilst I do not doubt that John Paul II is in heaven, I also believe that his canonisation was a major prudential error on the part of the Church.

I agree with the Chevalier on his analysis, but I think his canonisation was an attempt to 'canonise' the Council (as was the canonisation of John XXIII, and the coming canonisation of Paul VI, for which we have John Paul and Benedict XVI to thank)), and I believe that when God restores sanity to the Church, the Council will be consigned to the dustbin of history.

From Rorate Caeli

Another week and another massive scandal in the American Church. The following is an appropriate summary of the final Report of the Grand Jury investigation of the "widespread sexual abuse of children in six dioceses of the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania":

The investigation captured widespread sexual abuse and institutional cover up across the entire state. Building on investigations of the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese and the Philadelphia Archdiocese by previous grand juries, the 40th Statewide Grand Jury’s investigation covered the other Dioceses of Allentown, Erie, Harrisburg, Greensburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton, giving a complete picture of pervasive abuse in dioceses across Pennsylvania. The grand jury found:

• -301 Catholic priests identified as predator priests who sexually abused children while serving in active ministry in the church.

 -Detailed accounts of over 1,000 children victimized sexually by predator priests, with the grand jury noting it believed the real number of victims was in the “thousands.”

• -Senior church officials, including bishops, monsignors and others, knew about the abuse committed by priests, but routinely covered it up to avoid scandal, criminal charges against priests, and monetary damages to the dioceses.

• -Priests committed acts of sexual abuse upon children, and were routinely shuttled to other parishes – while parishioners were left unaware of sexual predators in their midst.

The 884-page grand jury report documents scores of sexual assaults and rapes of children by priests, and the institutional cover ups that followed by senior church officials, including:

• -In the Diocese of Erie, (41 predator priests named), one priest, Father Chester Gawronski, fondled boys and told them he was giving them a “cancer check.” Gawronski provided the Diocese with a list of 41 “possible” victims. He confessed to multiple instances of sexual abuse. Yet from 1987 until 2002 – 15 years – Gawronski remained in active ministry, repeatedly reassigned to new parishes.

• -In the Diocese of Allentown (37 predator priests named), one priest, Father Michael Lawrence rubbed a 12-year-old boy’s genitals so roughly the boy felt pain. “Please help me, I sexually molested a boy,” Lawrence admitted to a church official, who noted the confession in a confidential memo. Even after that admission, the Diocese ruled: “the experience will not necessarily be a horrendous trauma” for the victim. Lawrence was left in ministry for years by three different Bishops.

• -In the Diocese of Greensburg (20 predator priests named), one priest, Father Raymond Lukac, impregnated a 17-year-old, forged another pastor’s signature on a marriage certificate, then divorced the girl shortly after she gave birth. Despite that, Lukac remained in ministry while the Diocese sought a “benevolent bishop” in another state to take the predator, hiding him from justice.

• -In the Diocese of Harrisburg (45 predator priests named), one priest, Father Joe Pease, sexually assaulted a boy repeatedly when the victim was between 13 and 15. Pease admitted to diocese officials to once finding the victim naked upstairs in the rectory – but called it “horse play”. In a secret memo, the Diocese noted: “At this point we are at an impasse—allegations and no admission” before cycling Pease through church-run treatment and allowing him back in active ministry for seven more years.

• -In the Diocese of Pittsburgh (99 predator priests named), a group of at least four predator priests groomed and abused young boys. They used whips, violence and sadism in sexually assaulting their young victims. One boy, not yet 18, was forced to stand on a bed in a rectory, strip naked, and pose as Christ on the Cross for the priests. They took photos of their victim, adding them to a collection of child pornography which they produced and shared on church grounds.

• -In the Diocese of Scranton (59 predator priests named), one priest, Thomas Skotek, raped a young girl, got her pregnant, and arranged an abortion. The Bishop, James Timlin, expressed his feelings in a letter: “This is a very difficult time in your life, and I realize how upset you are. I too share your grief.” The bishop’s letter was not sent to the girl. It was addressed to the rapist.

!!!!!

The office of the Attorney General of Pennsylvania has provided a full website dedicated to the report and its details by diocese here.

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The greatest part of the horrid episodes documented by the Grand Jury report happened in the pontificates of John XXIII, Paul VI, and John Paul II. Some happened before. But as the Church "opened itself to the world", according to the desire of John XXIII, worldly behaviors infiltrated the Church more and more. The horrid episodes represent only what could be found in just six dioceses of one state of one country: the putrefaction runs wide and deep.

How could John XXIII and John Paul II have been canonized? Their systematic failures in the naming of bishops were monstrous. How can Francis dare beatify and now canonize Paul VI, one of the worst popes in history, whose nominations throughout the world, and in the United States, managed to make what was bad truly awful? 

Let us be honest: as administrators, John XXIII, Paul VI, and John Paul II were no saints. They may have been validly included in the list of saints, but their express-rite canonizations are shown, with each passing week, to have been horrible mistakes. A considerable period of time and long investigations of their grave omissions and of their disgraceful cover-up of perverted or irresponsible bishops should have taken place before any beatification procedure had ever been opened up.

The centralization of the administration of the Church went much deeper in their pontificates. They assumed the responsibility for each of these small faithful. They diluted the responsibility of bishops by encouraging and engorging the useless bureaucracies of the bishops' conferences. These little faithful, the children who were abused, were also THEIR failures, the failures of each one of them (and also of preceding and succeeding popes in a lesser degree, but these are either living or have not been beatified or canonized).

The time will surely come in the future to reassess these failed pontificates and to do all that is possible to reevaluate these hasty procedures, in which so much pain and so much failure and so much corruption were overlooked.