By Bridgette P. Lavictoire
Lez Get Real
February 13, 2011
http://lezgetreal.com/2011/02/three-catholic-priests-teacher-charged-in-sexual-abuse-of-minor/
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WARNING: Contains graphic information about sexual abuse
For the last several years, Pope Benedict has done his best to assure the world that the priest child abuse scandal was a thing of the past and that the cases that are coming forward are not a reflection of the Church today. Unfortunately for him, that may no longer be quite so believable. The current indictments against Church officials, priests and teachers all within the statute of limitations for these crimes, so there has been a grand jury investigation and charges have been brought.
According to the DA's statement:
Following the recommendations of the grand jury, the District Attorney's Office today charged the three priests and the teacher with rape, indecent sexual assault and other criminal charges.
Charles Engelhardt, 64, an Oblate priest, is accused of orally sodomizing and molesting a 10-year-old altar boy in 1998 in the sacristy at St. Jerome Parish in Northeast Philadelphia. Edward Avery, 68, an Archdiocesan priest who was defrocked in 2006, is charged with the same offenses against the same boy. And this boy's sixth-grade teacher at St. Jerome School, 48-year-old Bernard Shero, is accused of orally and anally sodomizing the then-11-year-old in the back of the teacher's car.
James Brennan, 47, an Archdiocesan priest, is accused of forcing his penis into the buttocks of a 14-year-old former parishioner when he was in the priest's bed. At the time, the summer of 1996, Father Brennan was on leave from Cardinal O'Hara High School. In 1997, he was returned to active ministry and assigned to St. Jerome Parish.
Also charged is Bernard Shero, 48, who is accused of assaulting the same boy in 2000. Shero was a teacher at the school. The abuse began when the boy was ten.
The statement also noted:
Even more troubling, the grand jury believed that many priests – dozens of them – have remained in ministry despite solid, credible allegations of abuse. It is time for the church to remove all credibly accused priests from ministry, and to put protection of children ahead of protection from scandal.
What is more troubling for the Catholic Church is that one high level Church official has been indicted not for rape, but for knowing about the molestation and doing nothing about it. Monsignor William Lynn, the former Secretary of clergy for the Archdiocese, is being charged for "knowingly endangering the children he was supposed to defend." A previous investigation into the Church's actions concluded that prosecution of Archdiocese officials would be difficult because of problems with the evidence and problems with the statute of limitations. This investigation, however, found specific evidence within the statute of limitations which directly linked Monsignor Lynn's actions to the abuse of the two new victims. He had information that could have protected them, but he, instead, lied to parishioners and actually enabled abusers to have direct contact with adolescents. This resulted in the alleged assaults against at least two more victims.
In one of the cases, a boy was handed between abusers. According to this graphic description from the grand jury report, the abuse was rather extensive. The report states:
Eventually, the priest directed Billy to take off his clothes, and to put his penis in the priest's mouth. Then the priest reversed positions, until he ejaculated on the boy. After that, Billy was in effect passed around to Engelhardt's colleagues. Father Edward Avery undressed with the boy, told him that God loved him, had him engage in oral intercourse, and ejaculated on him. Next was the turn of Bernard Shero, a teacher in the school. Shero offered Billy a ride home, but instead stopped at a park, told Billy they were "going to have some fun," took off the boy's clothes, orally and anally raped him, and then made him walk the rest of the way home.
For the grand jury, the most disheartening part was learning that the current practice towards accused abusers within the Philadelphia Archdiocese had not changed much. The report sates "We would have assumed, by the year 2011, after all the revelations both here and around the world, that the church would not risk its youth by leaving them in the presence of priests subject to substantial evidence of abuse." What they discovered, though, was that at least 37 priests have been kept in assignments that expose them to children despite credible allegations of abuse. Ten of these priests have been in place since before 2005.
The report also states that "by no means do we believe that there were the only two parishioners who were abused during this period." The report also looked into accusations against some fifty priests in total.
The New York Times, though, noted:
The report accused the archdiocese of lacking urgency in its efforts to eradicate sexual abuse by its priests.
It said a panel looking into the allegations dismissed charges against a priest by two independent victims, saying their evidence lacked credibility.
"These are simply not the actions of an institution that is serious about ending sexual abuse of children," the report said.
The Vatican has been adamant about how they are taking the abuse cases seriously, but evidence mounts at every turn that they are doing what they can to shield themselves from investigation. Those accused in the report have been arrested.
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