Chicago Catholic News
November 30, 2010
http://www.chicagocatholicnews.com/2010/11/guest-commentary-snap-takes-aim-at.html
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As Joliet's bishop moves on, he leaves in his wake one of the very worst clergy sex cases we've seen in recent years. It should alarm Catholics here and in his new post: Seattle, Washington, where he's formally taking the helm this week.
Here's what happened:
-In the spring of 2009, prosecutors say that Joliet church officials caught a seminarian, Alejandro Flores, with porn including some images that appeared to be of young boys.
-Church staff kept this secret but were worried enough that they allegedly told Flores to stay away from kids.
-Just weeks later, Joliet's bishop, J. Peter Sartain, ordained Flores anyway.
-In early September 2010, the pope promoted Sartain to head Seattle's archdiocese.
-Right around the same time, Flores pled guilty to molesting a boy.
This may be the most disturbing case we've seen anywhere since the infamous 2005 case of Fr. Daniel McCormack in Chicago. In fact, the similarities are noteworthy:
Like the McCormack case, all the Joliet wrongdoing happened years after America’s bishops pledged to reform and be "open and transparent" about clergy sexual misconduct.
Like the McCormack case, Flores' crimes happened long after church officials claimed they do more to screen potential priests.
Like McCormack, Flores was a young, recently ordained priest.
Like McCormack, alleged restrictions were put on Flores but few, if any, were told about them.
Like McCormack, Flores was accused of molesting more than one child.
Like McCormack, with Flores, devastating child sex crimes could have been stopped sooner and perhaps prevented.
But here is perhaps the most outrageous part of this sad situation:
In the McCormack case, within a year of his conviction, almost every church official involved was promoted.
And in the Joliet case, Pope Benedict promoted Sartain to Seattle.
This is particularly outrageous because Cardinal George may not have known of McCormack’s misdeeds before McCormack was ordained. But it’s pretty clear that Bishop Sartain DID know of Flores’ misdeeds before Flores was ordained. (Remember: Joliet is a relatively small diocese and no one is suggesting that Sartain’s underlings concealed Flores’ misdeeds from him.)
In fairness, some might say that essentially "blaming" Pope Benedict for Sartain’s promotion is a stretch. After all, it’s possible, even likely, that no one in the Vatican knew Sartain acted so recklessly, secretively and deceptively about Flores.
But now Sartain’s irresponsible actions have been made public by the prosecutor. And earlier this fall we wrote the pope, urging him to rescind his promotion of Sartain. Benedict simply can’t keep promoting bishops who ignore, conceal or enable heinous child sex crimes. If he does, this long-standing, devastating scandal will simply continue and children will keep getting needlessly raped, sodomized and fondled by Catholic clerics.
So what if the pope doesn't act? In the short term, we in SNAP are seeking two things:
1. To inform the public and deter future recklessness, we are asking Kane County prosecutors to publicly disclose the evidence that would have been presented had Flores gone to trial, especially evidence that Joliet church officials saw but essentially ignored and minimized the "warning signs" of abuse in Flores' behavior.
2. To honor his pledges of "openness" and leave a more healed flock behind him, we are asking Sartain to "come clean" and answer questions at an open public meeting about "what he knew and when he knew it" about Flores' sexual misconduct.
For years, bishops have claimed "In the past, we just didn’t understand. But now we’ve reformed." Bishop Sartain's irresponsible and secretive actions with Fr. Flores cast serious doubt on that claim. And if unaddressed by Pope Benedict, doubt will also be cast on his recent pledges of reform.
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