Guatemala Was a Dumping Ground for Pedophile Catholic Priests
A reader sent me an alarming article about what U. S. Bishops did with many of the pedophile priests. The center of the story is right near us, Minnesota. There were so many abusive priests in Minnesota it leads the nation in bankrupt dioceses. The theme of the article is the sad revelation that untold numbers of children in Guatemala were abused because so many pedophile priests were sent there instead of to secular treatment facilities or incarceration.
After World War II Catholic numbers began to fall in Central and South America. There were not many priests there and evangelicals began to send preachers there who paid more attention to the locals. Popes at the time wanted to shore up numbers and were determined to raise the number of priests. Along came a supply of pedophile priests and off to Central and South America they were sent.
About the same time Catholic rehab places were started to treat priests with various psychological problems including pedophilia. Once a priest had been through the programs the question was what to do with him. These institutions became central in placing priests in locations after leaving the programs. While the wiser option would have been to turn them over to civil authorities, Catholic doctrine requires the church look after them for life so Bishops did not even consider calling the cops.
In Minnesota, a priest named David Romey told others the priesthood had never led him to the divine the way he thought it should. Instead, he was sexually attracted to children. A four year old girl from his parish sat in her dad's lap and said, "Your thing does not get big like Farther Romey's." In the late 1980's his Bishop had so many complaints about Romey he had to do something. He was sent off to remote Guatemala.
There, unsupervised, locals said he portrayed himself as a father figure to children whose fathers had died or left. He adopted a six year old girl and locals who knew his pattern of abuse worried about her. Romney eventually died and no one knows where the girl is now.
People who have studied the behavior and decision of Bishops at the time have decided Bishops had little to no interest in what happened to children where these pedophile priests were assigned. The only question Bishops dealt with was where can these men be sent.
The harm done by these priests and the Bishops that hid them is gruesome. It is hard to believe any human beings could be that cruel to other human beings.
Jon, that is horrendous. Thanks for writing about this shocking evil in the catholic church. It hasn't stopped and won't until its corporate feet are held to the fire and complicit individuals and law breaking priests are in prison. I need to go and take a bath, I feel icky and my skin is crawling.
ReplyDeleteTrump’s general attorney Billy Barr was quoted saying Trump was “morally responsible” for the January 6th insurrection but “not legally culpable”. Copper toned Teflon Don has absolutely no clue what “morally responsible” means. Only “not legally culpable” rings his bell.
ReplyDeleteIs this the verdict handed down for the Catholic Church? That it admit moral responsibility for the perverse behavior of some of its clergy, because it can.
That it get a pass on legal culpability for the consequences of its tepid response to the sexual assaults of children by priests, the sexual assault of children?
There’s something askew in the core values and mission of Catholicism’s religious enterprise. It’s history tells us the defect has been there since birth.
Ardy B-- "There's something askew in the core values and mission of Catholicism's religious enterprise."
ReplyDeleteGreat observation and parallel. As an institution, the Catholic Church is a slow learner. In fact, it seldom learns at all. Instead of understanding "mankind is made up of sinners," the Catholic Church should have understood, "mankind tends toward self serving, rules need to recognize this." Before the Referendum priests were given (or took) the responsibility to forgive sins by collecting money. Even back then, any rational person or group would see the temptation of stealing money from people without punishment was one many humans cannot pass up. Priests are no better than Joe Blow at passing up a chance to help themselves to the spoils.
Instead of learning from that history, the Catholic hierarchy just repeated the same mistake with sexual crimes. The rule was, sexual crimes will be handled in house--no secular rules apply. "You are forgiven" replaced "the money settles the sin score." Again, priests were presented the opportunity to commit sexual crimes without consequences. There is even the possibility this free pass within the priesthood attracted some potential criminals.
Playing with other peoples' minds is the ancient way to gain power over others, get rich and satisfy sexual desires. In the secular world there are laws that try to limit how much of this is allowed. In the Catholic Church these limits are lacking.
Whoops, "Before the REFORMATION (not referendum)
ReplyDelete