BishopAccountability.org
	Urell Tried to Heal As Well As Conceal What the Monsignor Had to Live with By Frank Mickadeit Orange County Register October 12, 2007 http://www.ocregister.com/column/john-ramos-urell-1887687-victims-one A "Friends of Monsignor John Urell" has formed. They believe, as do I, that Urell is not a molester, that he was sent to a psychiatric facility for treatment of a breakdown that arose from the pressure of dealing with molesters, their victims and the legal fallout. What must it have been like to be one of the top officials in the Diocese of Orange and having to try to clean up the mess? To comfort victims while trying to protect the Diocese? By taking a glimpse into the case of a priest the church has acknowledged in documents was a serial molester, Rev. Eleuterio (Al) Ramos, one can get a sense. I interviewed a man named John Doe. We don't name abuse victims, therefore the alias. John is 43, a cop in Orange County, and has a wife and one child. When John was 12, he got an after-school job as a rectory boy at Immaculate Heart of Mary in Santa Ana, where Ramos was a priest. One evening, Ramos suggested John stay the night because he had to serve a quinceañera the next morning. John's parents said OK. That evening, Ramos offered John some vodka and orange juice, which he drank. "Next thing I know," John says, "I'm lying down and my pants are off." From age 12 and into adulthood, Ramos molested him "anywhere, anytime he could. … At the movies, in the sacristy, in his car. He was a big fan of the Motel 6 on Chapman at the 57 Freeway." "The whole time, I'm being told that because he gave up the right to a home and a wife and kids, that I was God's gift to him. I assumed it was my destiny." John's parents were happy to have a priest take an interest in their son and even allowed him to go on trips with Ramos to San Diego. Ramos would rent a room in Hotel Circle and then drive to Tijuana, where they'd get drunk in bars and have sex. Molestation complaints to the Diocese about Ramos dated back to 1974. But he was sent to parishes in Placentia, La Habra, Anaheim and Brea. The number of his victims is believed to have exceeded 25. Finally, in 1985, the Diocese arranged with the bishop of Tijuana to let him live there, although he was still allowed around children. Urell didn't become the head of clergy and vicar general until a few years later and there's no indication he had anything to do with sending Ramos away. But he knew what was in the diocese's files about Ramos, knew Orange was sending his salary to Tijuana, and in 1993 learned specifically about John Doe's case. At that point, with Urell acting as Bishop Norman McFarland's right-hand man, Ramos was pulled out of Tijuana, brought back to Southern California and allowed to retire. Neither Urell nor anyone at the diocese reported Ramos to police. Ramos continued to molest boys. At least one local police department looked into a complaint, but ran into statute-of-limitations issues. Ramos died in 2004. At the same time he was letting Ramos slide on the legal front, Urell was reaching out to victims, including John. Urell asked him if he could do anything to help him. John asked for counseling, an apology, a letter put in Ramos's file and an 800-number for abuse victims. He got everything but the phone line. Letters to John show Urell personally tried to arrange psychological counseling for him. "May the Lord bless you during this time," he said in one letter. "With kindest personal regards, and knowing that I will hear from you in the future, I am, Sincerely Yours in Christ … " They became friends. When John and his fiancee decided to get married, Urell married them in the cathedral. He baptized their firstborn. He put John on a victims' committee. "Urell was the first brick in my road back to the church," John says. But the relationship didn't last. John was unhappy when Urell refused to hold the kind of funeral service John wanted for John's second child, who was stillborn. Later, as more and more came out in legal documents, John found out how much Urell had known about the abuse and yet hadn't called police. "What's frustrating is that not only was he my bridge (back to the church) but he knew about all this stuff," John told me. So there you have one pretty good example of Urell's duality: Trying to be a healer while keeping the Church's darkest secrets. Multiply John's case by several dozen. No normal human could live with that forever. Contact the writer: Mickadeit writes Mon.-Fri. Contact him at 714-796-4994 or fmickadeit@ocregister.com
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.