Cullen Rebuts Story from Pulpit, by Peter Hall and Matt Assad, Morning Call, February 25, 2011

Cullen Rebuts Story from Pulpit

By Peter Hall and Matt Assad
Morning Call
February 25, 2011

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/allentown/mc-allentown-priest-sex-abuse-cullen-20110225-64,0,6450918.story

File: Former Allentown Catholic Diocese Bishop Edward P. Cullen (Chuck Zovko, TMC / May 7, 2007)

The Allentown Catholic Diocese has distanced itself from comments retired Bishop Edward Cullen made at a confirmation this week, when he said a newspaper article was false in stating he helped protect a Philadelphia area priest who later was charged with raping an altar boy.

Speaking at the end of the confirmation Tuesday at St. Anne Church in Bethlehem, Cullen said an article in The Morning Call on Sunday based on a Philadelphia grand jury report represented the latest example of what he described as the newspaper's longstanding bias against Catholics, according to several who attended the ceremony.

An aunt of one of the eighth-graders being confirmed said Cullen referred to The Morning Call's initials and he said they really stand for "to mortify Catholics."

"For the parents of a child being confirmed, it was totally inappropriate," she said. "It's not the kind of memory you want to take away from your child's confirmation."

Cullen, speaking from the pulpit, also asked those in the church to pray for him to be able to forgive The Morning Call, a man attending the confirmation said.

Allentown Diocese spokesman Matt Kerr said Thursday he was not aware of what Cullen, who was head of the diocese from 1997 until his retirement in 2009, said at the confirmation.

"Only the sitting bishop speaks for the diocese," Kerr said.

On Friday, Kerr said Bishop John O. Barres would not be issuing a statement about Cullen's remarks.

Cullen did not repeat the remarks at a Thursday confirmation at St. Elizabeth Church in Fullerton.

The Morning Call article Sunday was based on a Jan. 21 Philadelphia grand jury report that says in 1993, before he was bishop of Allentown, Cullen helped protect the Rev. Edward Avery, who earlier this month was charged with raping a 10-year-old altar boy in 1998.

The grand jury said Cullen, in carrying out Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua's policy, helped deceive parishioners when an accusation surfaced about Avery in 1993. The grand jury cited a memo in which Cullen instructs a monsignor to tell Avery's congregation that he was being reassigned for health reasons, "rather than inform parishioners of the truth — that the priest had molested at least one altar boy, and could not be trusted around adolescents."

No charges will be filed against Cullen, who as vicar for administration was the Philadelphia Archdiocese's No. 2 man under Bevilacqua, because the statute of limitations has expired on the 1993 allegation, said Tasha Jamerson, a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia district attorney's office.

Cullen testified before a 2005 Philadelphia grand jury investigating allegations of abuse by priests, but he was not called to testify before the recent grand jury. However, the memo from Cullen was included in the recent report because it "established a pattern of deception" by church leaders, Jamerson said.

The recent report also notes, "Cullen testified before the previous grand jury that Cardinal Bevilacqua was insistent, in all cases involving the sexual abuse of minors by priests, that parishioners not be informed of the truth."

Cullen, 77, declined to discuss the report with a Morning Call reporter before the story was published, saying, "That's in Philadelphia. I have no comment." He has not contacted The Morning Call with concerns about the story and did not return a request for comment after addressing the confirmation class at St. Anne.

The Morning Call reached out to dozens who had attended the confirmation. Most did not reply to messages or would not discuss Cullen's remarks. The four who agreed declined to use their names, citing fear of backlash from the parish community.

According to the accounts, Cullen seemed to take issue with the newspaper for noting his involvement with Avery, which came five years before the 1998 alleged rape that led to the charges against the priest. Some said Cullen conveyed that the paper overstated his role in the grand jury's findings in the report.

The recent Philadelphia grand jury investigation led to rape charges against three priests, including Avery, and a teacher. In addition, Monsignor William Lynn was charged with felony child endangerment, marking the first time a church supervisor has been charged with enabling an abusive priest.

One woman whose daughter was confirmed Tuesday said she was so upset with Cullen after reading the Sunday story, she did not go to church that day.

At the confirmation, she said, she felt "angry listening to him talk about the sacrament and how important it is to guide our children morally."

She said she was relieved when Cullen at least broached the subject, adding, "It seemed like there needed to be some address to the faithful."

St. Anne's School made a robo-call to all parents Wednesday afternoon asking them to direct a reporter's inquiries to Principal Annette M. Filler so that she could speak for the school as a community. Reached by phone Wednesday, Filler said she had no comment on Cullen's remarks.

St. Anne's pastor, the Rev. Anthony P. Mongiello, did not return phone calls.

A videographer hired by the parish recorded the confirmation but said he was instructed by a school official not to show the video to a reporter.

Cullen has publicly criticized the newspaper in the past for its reporting of sexual abuse allegations against priests in the Allentown Diocese.

In an interview published Jan. 2, 2003, in The AD Times, the diocese's newspaper, Cullen said, "Dealing with the media, especially The Morning Call," had been the most difficult part of the scandal for him to handle.

"They kept the story in the forefront of the local news by continuously repeating and restating old news in a hammering and battering fashion," he said in the article.

Since 2002, eight priests in the five-county Allentown Diocese serving 272,000 Catholics have been removed or have resigned over allegations of abuse. That year, Cullen joined bishops nationwide in installing sweeping measures to protect children, including instituting background checks, setting up a panel to review abuse allegations and pledging to file criminal charges against any suspected abuser. The diocese also has offered counseling to victims.

Cullen's remarks at Tuesday's confirmation stand in stark contrast to Philadelphia Cardinal Justin Rigali's response to the grand jury report. Rigali, who became archbishop when Bevilacqua retired in 2003, has called for the re-examination of all 37 priests implicated in allegations of child sexual abuse who remain in active ministry.

He also said the archdiocese has hired a former prosecutor to review the cases of accused priests and the procedures used by the archdiocese, and to make recommendations and assist the archdiocese in its cooperation with the Philadelphia district attorney's office.

"Many people of faith and in the community at large think that the archdiocese does not understand the gravity of child sexual abuse. We do. The task before us now is to recognize where we have fallen short and to let our actions speak to our resolve," Rigali said in a written statement.

The archdiocese went a step further Thursday, publishing an apology in its Catholic Standard and Times newspaper saying, "We, the church, are sorry for the sexual abuse suffered by our brothers and sisters when they were young people at the hands of the church's clergymen and teachers. …The church begs forgiveness of our brothers and sisters, and of almighty God."