Sexual Misconduct Claims: St. John’s Seminary Shakeup
St. John’s Seminary Shakeup Amid Probe Into Sexual Misconduct Claims
August 10, 2018 at 8:20 pmFiled Under: Archdiocese Of Boston, Cardinal Sean O'Malley, St. John's Seminary
BOSTON (CBS) – The rector of St. John’s Seminary in Brighton has been placed on leave during an independent investigation into claims by two former seminarians of alleged sexual misconduct there.
In a statement, Cardinal Seán O’Malley said the two former seminarians of St. John’s Seminary recently posted allegations on social media sites, including the Archdiocese’s Facebook page, of their experiences and observations while at the seminary.
The former seminarians claim that “they witnessed and experienced activities which are directly contrary to the moral standards and requirements of formation for the Catholic priesthood,” O’Malley said.
Cardinal Sean O’Malley has launched a probe into claims by former seminarians regarding conduct at St. John’s Seminary in Brighton. (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images)
O’Malley did not elaborate on the claims by the seminarians or the alleged activities they witnessed or experienced.
“At this time I am not able to verify or disprove these allegations,” O’Malley said. “As Archbishop of Boston, with responsibility for the integrity of the seminary and its compliance with the Church’s Program for Priestly Formation, I am committed to immediate action to address these serious matters.”
In a statement late Friday afternoon, Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who is representing a former St. John’s seminarian, slammed the Archdiocese for “continuing to practice the cover up of sexual abuse.”
“The recent reporting of sexual abuse at St. John’s Seminary is further evidence that the Archdiocese of Boston is continuing to practice the cover-up of sexual abuse and will not practice transparency to help sexual abuse victims heal,” said Garabedian, who previously represented several victims in the church sex abuse scandal. “The Archdiocese of Boston should publically release all records and information relative to sexual abuse at St. John’s Seminary so that sexual abuse victims can try to heal.”
“The creation of an investigatory board or team should have taken place decades ago,” Garabedian said. “Given the horrible history of sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of Boston it should come as no surprise that sexual abuse has taken place at St. John’s Seminary.”...
O’Malley said he has directed the group, “with due seriousness of their assignment,” to submit their findings to him “as soon as possible,” along with “recommendations to assure appropriate standards of professional behavior in compliance with Church teaching at all levels of seminary life.”
“The allegations made this week are a source of serious concern to me as Archbishop of Boston,” O’Malley said. “The ministry of the Catholic priesthood requires a foundation of trust with the people of the Church and the wider community in which our priests serve. I am determined that all our seminaries meet that standard of trust and provide the formation necessary for priests to live a demanding vocation of service in our contemporary society.
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To me, this whole "Catholic priesthood, church sex abuse scandal and “the creation of an investigatory board or team", on behalf of the victims and the law, is equivalent to putting a band-aid over a bullet hole. Oh, what horrid situation young seminarians have to live under in this and other Catholic Institutions! Why don't the Priests just confess, as they were taught and as others confessed (?) to them? CM
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Eph 5:12
What is your personal infatuation with this kind of topic? -
You said" In the thread: Another Cardinal (Theodore McCarrick) Getting to the bottom: Self-Investigation or Special Counsel?
GaoLu Posts: 914 -- August 2 -- Why plaster it all over forums? (That is not a question). Eph 5:12 applies here: For it is shameful even to mention what is done by them in secret.
My response then, and now:
C_M_ Posts: 1,387-August 2 edited August 2
@GaoLu said: Why plaster it all over forums? (That is not a question). Eph 5:12 applies here: For it is shameful even to mention what is done by them in secret.GaoLu,
1. I hope you are having a better day than yesterday?
2. The RCC Crimes are not "plaster" all over CD's "forums". "Question" or not, it's only in this thread. It's on the Newsfeeds, Cable-news, Podcasts and the Internet.3. Are you suggesting RCC institutional, worldwide, predator priests, coverup, hush money payoffs, for decades, self-investigative body, snail-paced walking to identify criminals within its bowels and with the vulnerability of thousands of students in her supposedly care; not discuss the sick-men (priests) deeds because they were done in secret? One couldn't be more uncaring, unsympathetic, a manifestation of dereliction of duty to humanity and decency. There are real crimes, real hurt, real pain, real cover-ups, a real need to identify, for justice, compensation and prosecutions. Lives have been destroyed!
- Frankly, if you have read the entire thread, you, too, would display some form of a "righteous indignation".
5. We must speak up and speak out. Lives have been destroyed (I repeat) and an equal number around the world are currently in danger. It must be discussed, not so much to shame, but to protect, compensation and redress from the Holy House-- "A cesspool of deviancy".
With that said, please, allow me to share another view of the passage you cited with a wealthier background than the purpose you had in mind for citing it. I assumed you meant well, but during the time of Paul greater things were going on than just secret sins.
"In the heathen worship, there were "mysteries," to which only the initiated were admitted. These were celebrated in the inner temples, and it is doubtless of them that the apostle Paul speaks when he says: "For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret." Eph. 5:12. If the things recorded in the first chapter of Romans were done openly, what must have been the depth of the wickedness that was done in secret, and of which it is a shame even to speak? But let it be understood that the heathen themselves felt no shame for any of their practices. They gloried in them, as things which brought them nearer to the gods. The more licentious they were, the more nearly they resembled the gods which they worshiped. The worst abominations were done in secret, not out of a sense of shame, but to show that certain ones had advanced beyond the common people in matters of "religion."
On this point, Stuart, in commenting on Rom. 1: 24 (See source below), says:
" The imputation is, that in apostatizing from the true God, and betaking themselves to the worship of idols, they had at the same time been the devoted slaves of lust; which indeed seems here also, by implication, to be assigned as the reason or ground of their apostasy. Everyone knows, moreover, that among almost all the various forms of heathenism, impurity has been either a direct or indirect service in its pretended religious duties. Witness the shocking law among the Babylonians, that every woman should prostitute herself, at least once, before the shrine of their Venus. It is needless to say, that the worshipers of Venus in Greece and Rome practiced such rites; or that the mysteries of heathenism, of which Paul says it is a shame even to speak, allowed a still greater latitude of indulgence. Nor is it necessary to describe the obscene and bloody rites practiced in Hindostan, in the South Sea and the Sandwich Islands, and generally among the heathen. Polytheism and idolatry ...have nearly always been a religion of obscenity and blood".
I hope you appreciate the fresh perspective and help make suggestions to the RCC, to come clean and the victims of sexual abuse families, to find healing. The "head-in-the-sand" mentality and closed-lips are not options, worthy of consideration. Especially, when so many people, in so many places, for so long, with so many psychological-emotional scars, remains to be healed! I am sure this is something you and I can agree upon. CM
SOURCE:
-- Moses Stuart. "Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans p. 82.
PS. I still don't have that internal hyperlink thing down to send you to the thread:
"Another Cardinal (Theodore McCarrick) Getting to the bottom: Self-Investigation or Special Counsel"? CM
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Would you believe this is not the latest RCC Priests, sex-crimes, payoffs, coverups and family destroyed? There seems to be no end in sight. CM
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I am suggesting that your mind is prone to this same gutter over and over accomplishing nothing. There is an answer to your problem and it is found in Php 4:8.
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@GaoLu said:
I am suggesting that your mind is prone to this same gutter over and over accomplishing nothing. There is an answer to your problem and it is found in Php 4:8.GaoLu,
You may have a point when it comes to my "problem", but as for the RCC, it's another story.The latest RCC Priests, sex-crimes, payoffs, coverups, and families destroyed calls for police, arrests, indictments prison and the adding of names to the Sexual Predator Federal Registry. The RCC needs to be shut down until there are thorough investigations, the removal, and jailing of Predator Priests, Bishops, and Cardinals. This institution is a hotbed of sexual crimes, deviance, and coverups. Why does America put up with this? Families are not safe, in any of the RCC Institutions, until the murdering of families (on the installment plan) is brought to a halt and the criminal within are removed.
So, don't throw texts at me to help this church cover crimes and sins. They use texts, robes, confessionals, wine, water, etc., to commit their nasty deeds. God, help the victims! CM
