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Bishop Wall’s hypocritical finger pointing (or Bishop Wall’s hypocrisy)
Gallup Independent
September 1, 2018
Once again leaders of the Catholic Church are receiving public criticism for their decades long cover-up of clergy sex abuse and misconduct. And once again the public is being subjected to another round of apologies from the church hierarchy – from Pope Francis down to bishops across the country.
But after 16 years of apologies, which began in Boston in 2002, those apologies are ringing hollow. Locally, in the Diocese of Gallup, Bishop James S. Wall’s recent letter of apology is sounding particularly hollow.
In his letter, which is being reprinted on the Religion Page in today’s Independent, Wall is quick to point fingers at Archbishop Theodore McCarrick and other bishops. Wall is clearly trying to separate himself from his fellow bishops – the same bishops he was only too happy to join nine years ago when Pope Benedict XVI made him a bishop. Now Wall is trying to infer he is not like his brother bishops, he is not cut from the same cloth. However, Wall’s record of action – and inaction – indicates otherwise.
In 2009, immediately after becoming bishop of the Diocese of Gallup, Wall announced he was ordering an exhaustive investigation of the personnel files of all current and former Gallup clergy. He also promised he would publicly release the investigation findings in less than a year. That never happened, and the findings remain secret. That’s called a cover-up.
Also in 2009, Wall announced an investigation into the arrest of the Rev. John Boland in Winslow, Arizona, in 1983, and the plea deal that allowed Boland to remain in ministry in the Gallup Diocese. Wall also promised to publicly release those findings. But Wall didn’t turn to Arizona law enforcement authorities to conduct that investigation. Instead, Wall hired a former FBI agent to conduct a private, internal investigation for the diocese. The findings of that investigation remain secret. That’s called a cover-up.
And what happened to Boland? Wall allowed Boland to keep his passport, and then he looked the other way when Boland fled back to his native Ireland in 2010. That’s called a cover-up.
In 2011, Wall made national news after the Gallup Independent revealed Wall had never even bothered to meet with the Gallup Diocesan Review Board on Juvenile Sexual Abuse in the two years he had been bishop. Since then, Wall has appointed new board members and now keeps their identities secret. That’s called a cover-up.
In September 2013, Wall, along with the Rev. Alfred Tachias, a Gallup priest forced into retirement because of sexual misconduct, underwent deposition interviews in a clergy sex abuse lawsuit. Over the objections of the attorneys for the abuse survivor, attorneys for the Diocese of Gallup insisted the testimonies of Wall and Tachias be sealed. Five years later, the public still has no information about the testimony in those depositions. That’s called a cover-up.
Exactly five years ago, over the Labor Day Weekend, Wall announced the Diocese of Gallup was filing a Chapter 11 petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court because of mounting clergy sex abuse lawsuits and claims. Then, for more than three years, Wall and his attorneys battled sex abuse claimants at every turn of the court proceedings. The abuse claimants asked for the public release of the personnel files of credibly accused clergy sex abusers. However, Wall and his attorneys refused to release the files, and they threatened to scuttle the entire settlement if the abuse survivors didn’t drop their request. Wall and his attorneys won that fight and never released the abuser files. That’s called a cover-up.
In December 2014, Wall finally released a list of names of credibly accused clergy sex abusers from the Diocese of Gallup. However, the names of four former Gallup priests, all publicly identified by other Catholic dioceses or religious orders as credibly accused abusers, were not included on the list. The Gallup Diocese still hasn’t added the names of additional accused clergy. When asked about this, the current spokeswoman for the diocese has said the investigations into those names are still ongoing. Sure they are. That’s called a cover-up.
However, not all of the Gallup Diocese’s dark secrets are from the past. During Wall’s tenure, a number of current clergy – diocesan, Franciscan and foreign – have been accused of misconduct, either sexual or financial. Wall has never issued announcements about those accusations. The public and the media remain in the dark about the truth of those allegations. That’s called a cover-up.
In his letter of apology, Wall writes, “There is no place in the Church for ignoring sin, for caring more for our public reputation than for following Christ faithfully.”
Actually, there is such a place. It’s called the Diocese of Gallup’s chancery office.
In this space only does the opinion of the Gallup Independent Editorial Board appear.
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