The Lightning Rod

By Bruce Daniels
Albuquerque Journal
August 1, 1993

[Note: This webpage was created from a copy of the original article in the Phil Saviano Archive. We thank him for his generosity. BishopAccountability.org is solely responsible for this web posting.]

The Servants of the Paraclete, a ministry to troubled priests in Jemez Springs, has become a lightning rod in the storm over Catholic clergy sex abuse.

The church's first, and for many years only, treatment center for clerics opened nearly 50 years ago.

But few outside the church knew what the Paracletes did.

Despite its peaceful appearance, the Servants of the Paraclete center in Jemez Springs has been a storm center in New Mexico's clergy sex-abuse scandals. [Photo by] Mark Holm.

Then, last summer, former priest James R. Porter was accused. of molesting more than 100 young people in three states.

Lawsuits filed on behalf of Porter's alleged victims claim the Servants of the Paraclete—after treating Porter for pedophilia—sent him out to dioceses in New Mexico, where he molested more children.

Suddenly, the Servants of the Paraclete went from near invisibility to public target.

Into the Parishes

A leading critic is Albuquerque attorney Bruce Pasternack, who represents a number of alleged sex abuse victims in New Mexico.

He told CBS-TV's "60 Minutes" in March that the presence of the Paracletes is a major reason the state has had such a problem with clergy sex abuse.

The Jemez Springs treatment center, he said, "became the place where pedophiles from all over the world were sent."

Critics accuse the Paracletes of foisting sexually abusive priests, treated here in Jemez Springs, on New Mexico parishes; the Paracletes say they're part of the solution, not the problem. [Photo by] Rose Palmisano.

And as part of their treatment or at its end, they were sent to parishes in New Mexico, he claims in lawsuits.

Albuquerque attorney Alan Konrad in late March challenged Pasternack's assertion by saying that of the 13 priests accused at that time of sexual misconduct in the Santa Fe archdiocese, "a grand total of two" had been sent to the Paracletes from dioceses elsewhere.

But according to court documents and interviews, at least nine of the 20 New Mexico priests now publicly accused of sexual misconduct were treated at the center.

And several came from outside New Mexico. For example:

• Porter was sent to the center in 1967 from Fall River, Mass., and was allowed to do parish work in New Mexico. He made national news because of the number of children he allegedly molested—before and after he left the Paracletes.

• The Rev. Arthur Perrault was sent to the Paracletes from Hartford, Conn., in 1967.

Perrault eventually became pastor of one of Albuquerque's largest parishes.

Allegations against the high-profile Perrault last summer triggered the widespread public attention here on the issue of clergy sex abuse.

• The Rev. David Holley was sent to the Paracletes from Worcester, Mass., in 1971.

The first priest to face criminal sexual-abuse charges in New Mexico, Holley was recently sentenced in Alamogordo to up to 275 years in prison.

Beginnings

Opened in 1947 by the Rev. Gerald McC. Fitzgerald, a Boston priest and former Army chaplain, the Servants of the Paraclete center was the church's first exclusive ministry to its own ministers in nearly 2,000 years.

It began as a home for aged and infirm priests.

A scrapbook from the Servants of the Paraclete shows the ministry's early days, nearly 50 years ago, when it opened a home for aged and infirm priests. [Photo by] Mark Holm.

It reports directly to the Vatican—bypassing the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, which provided the land.

Except for those aged priests who came to spend their last years at Jemez Springs, the Paracletes' first "guests" were mostly alcoholics. Some were clinically insane.

But by the late '50s and early '60s, the center began receiving more inquiries on where, to send priests who sexually abused children.

Father Gerald, who had a seemingly bottomless compassion for priests, was shocked and outraged by child-molesting clergy.

His suggestion was to ship all these "incorrigibles" to a tiny island in the Caribbean, which he had purchased for the Paracletes in the early '60s.

But the idea was, considered unscientific, if not shocking. He was ordered to sell the island and spend the last years of his life in Rome.

During the '60s and early '70s, the Paracletes began treating more pedophiles, though Paracletes officials say the pedophiles never exceeded 5 percent of their total population.

It was during this period that most of the priests now facing allegations came to the Paracletes.

A program of "supply ministry"—weekend and part-time work in the understaffed parishes of New Mexico—was worked out by the Paracletes, the archdiocese and its outside consultants.

Pasternack has accused the Paracletes in court of negligence and failure to warn parishes or parishioners of the danger posed by pedophile priests.

Paracletes officials contend no one—including mental health professionals—knew much about pedophilia at the time.

But, beginning in the late '70s, the Paracletes turned to a more "holistic" program—away from the monastic-retreat model to a more integrated blend of physical, psychological and spiritual treatment. Paraclete officials say the model is a success and has been adapted elsewhere.

In 1981, the Paracletes shut down their "home for the aged," stopped treating alcoholics and introduced a new degree of diagnostic and therapeutic sophistication in their program. Today, the center treats clerics experiencing stress or emotional and spiritual difficulties.

The Paracletes recently played host to an international symposium on pedophilia, and the center's current leader, the Very Rev. Liam J. Hoare, s.P., has served on high-level church panels on the issue.

"Since 1981, we have no cases of known recidivism into clergy sex abuse," Hoare said in a recent interview.

He later acknowledged the case of the Rev. Andrew Christian Andersen was an exception. Andersen, who was sent to the Paracletes in 1986 after being convicted of sexually abusing minors in California, was arrested on new charges in Albuquerque in 1990, while living at a Paracletes-run halfway house.

Still Secret

Resolving the current spate of lawsuits could bankrupt the ministry, an Albuquerque priest who is a member of the Paracletes told the Journal recently.

The Paracletes have sued their insurance companies, trying to ensure they will help pay court awards and settlements.

Meanwhile, new allegations keep surfacing—even though much of the abuse is alleged to have occurred years ago.

And the center—for years shrouded in secrecy—continues its tightlipped policy.

The Paracletes won't confirm or deny the presence of anyone in their program, past or present. (Andersen was the one exception.)

Officials won't disclose past or present numbers of patients being treated for pedophilia.

The Paracletes' literature says 95 percent of those who successfully complete treatment return to active ministry.

And what about priests who drop out of the program?

Paraclete officials will discuss individual cases only with the bishop or superior of the priest in treatment.

They say they inform that person if a priest drops out, but admit it's not easy to keep track.

There have been cases of priests dropping out and staying in New Mexico without the Archdiocese of Santa Fe being told.

But both Hoare and Bishop Michael J. Sheehan, the interim head of the archdiocese, say they've discussed the problem and have agreed to cooperate.

Acknowledging the confidentiality problems and the Paracletes' special relationship to the Vatican, Sheehan said, nevertheless, "We have established a good working relationship."