For immediate release: Monday, Jan. 23, 2006
For more information:
David Clohessy of St. Louis SNAP National Director 314 566-9790 cell, 314 645 5915
Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, SNAP Outreach Director 314 862 7688
Leaders of a support group for clergy sex abuse victims are again asking St. Louis’s Catholic archbishop to impose a moratorium on bringing alleged pedophile priests into this area.
Their renewed request comes on the heels of last Friday’s arrest of a cleric who allegedly molested kids in Wisconsin, South Dakota, and Texas.
At least two church affiliated centers – one in Jefferson County and one in Franklin County
house dozens of admitted, suspected and accused Catholic clerics facing child molestation charges.
Leaders of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, want Archbishop Raymond Burke Burke to temporarily stop these facilities from bringing more potentially dangerous men into the area.
“Why not put the safety of St. Louis families first?,” said SNAP’s letter to Burke. “What’s the harm in suspending this dangerous practice until it is thoroughly re-evaluated?”
On Friday, Fr. Bruce MacArthur was arrested at one of the centers. He will be extradicted to Wisconsin, and charged with molesting at least one girl.
At least three other priests - Father Victor Frobas, Father Romano Ferraro and Father Ken Roberts - molested children in St. Louis after being removed from their home dioceses for molesting children and sent here, SNAP claims. Lawsuits have been filed against the latter two.
Several out-of-state priests who have been allowed to come and live in the St. Louis area have generated controversy since 2004. They include:
- Brother Gerald Chumik is wanted on felony child molestation charges in Canada. He was accepted by a center here after parishioners in California demanded he be removed for the safety of their children.
- Father William Wiebler, an admitted child molester from Davenport Iowa, who walked away from at the Vianney Renewal Center in Dittmer last spring/summer and is living unsupervised less than 750 feet from Delmar Harvard Grade School and Julia Epstein Preschool. Last month, he was seen sporting a long white beard and wearing red “long johns” trying to give candy to children.
- Father Mark Roberts was charged with assaulted 11 boys in Las Vegas, convicted and sent here over the objections of the Missouri Probation Department. One of his victims lives less than 20 miles from the center.
In addition, SNAP says a convicted Illinois cleric (Brother Robert Bouillette) wrote and called one of his victims while living at the center (in violation of his parole), and a convicted Wisconsin priest (Father David Malsch) received child porn in the mail and was arrested by the FBI while living at one of the centers.
“The centers lack even basic security,” said Barbara Dorris, SNAP’s outreach coordinator. “There are no fences, no gates, no barbed wire, no ankle bracelets, no real monitoring of the molesters.”
Burke’s staff have sometimes claimed that the facilities are not owned or operated by the archdiocese, which limits his control over them. But SNAP says that church law and practice hold that an archbishop is responsible “for everything Catholic in his archdiocese, especially the protection of Catholic children from rapists and molesters.”
“Catholic tradition, practice and canon law say that a bishop has responsibility for everything in his diocese,” said David Clohessy, SNAP’s national director. “It’s disingenuous and deceitful to claim Burke is powerless over these centers.”
The Vianney Center is run by the Servants of the Paraclete. RECON is run by a Franciscan priest. RECON recently changed its name again to Evergreen Hills Homes. It has also been called “The Wounded Brothers Project.”
Last fall, SNAP disclosed that two other clergymen were living and working in St. Louis parishes despite being accused of sexual misconduct elsewhere.
In 2004, Fr. Nicholas Voelker was accused of twice sexually assaulting a Wichita, KS woman After she reported the misconduct, Voelker was sent to St. Ambrose Catholic church in south St. Louis where he worked and lived for seven months (Jan. 2005-July 2005.
In April 2002, Fr. Joseph Monahan was accused of molesting a Philadelphia boy in 1969. Yet for 3.5 years, he stayed in active ministry here in St. Louis (where he has lived since 1975) at St. Raphael’s parish in south St. Louis, where he was assigned to work with altar boys.
Last September, Monahan’s name first surfaced publicly as an alleged molester, when he was one of 171 current and former Philadelphia area priests disclosed in a grand jury report as having been accused of sexual abuse. That day, he was suspended from his position at St. Raphael’s.
A copy of SNAP's letter to Burke, sent today via fax and e mail, is below:
Jan. 23, 2006
Dear Archbishop Burke:
For two years now, you’ve been letting known, suspected, and admitted abusive clerics come and live in this area.
Dozens of such men, as you know, are now in Jefferson County, Franklin County and perhaps other sites in the St. Louis archdiocese. (Other local abusive clergy are living at Regina Cleri in Shrewsbury and in private residences).
For the second time in a year, we beg you to stop or at least suspend this dangerous practice of importing predators into our archdiocese.
Why not put the safety of St. Louis families first? What’s the harm in suspending this dangerous practice until it is thoroughly re-evaluated?
Consider just the troubling instances that have garnered public attention:
- On Friday, Father Bruce MacArthur was arrested at one of the centers. He will be extradited to Wisconsin, and charged with molesting at least one girl.
- At least three priests - Father Victor Frobas, Father Romano Ferraro and Father Ken Roberts - molested children in St. Louis after being removed from their home dioceses for molesting children and sent here,.
- Brother Gerald Chumik is wanted on felony child molestation charges in Canada. He was accepted by a center here after parishioners in California demanded he be removed for the safety of their children.
- Father William Wiebler, an admitted child molester from Davenport Iowa, who walked away from at the Vianney Renewal Center in Dittmer last spring/summer and is living unsupervised less than 750 feet from Delmar Harvard Grade School and Julia Epstein Preschool. Last month, he was seen sporting a long white beard and wearing red “long johns” trying to give candy to children.
- Father Mark Roberts was charged with assaulted 11 boys in Las Vegas, convicted and sent here over the objections of the Missouri Probation Department. One of his victims lives less than 20 miles from the center.
- Brother Robert Bouillette, a convicted Illinois cleric who wrote and called one of his victims while living at the center (in violation of his parole), and
- Father David Malsch, a convicted Wisconsin priest, received child porn in the mail and was arrested by the FBI while living at one of the centers.
Regardless of who technically, under canon law, may have authority over any of the sex offenders living here, you of course have authority over and responsibility for the centers themselves.
So we hope you will consider our moratorium proposal.
When the independence, qualifications and security of these facilities are questioned, bishops sometimes respond by claiming “well, we have to find some place for these men.” This logic is flawed.
The real solution to this “dilemma” is twofold.
First, you and your fellow church leaders should help get dangerous men behind bars, which is the only way we can be sure kids are safe. You can do this by
- directly, emphatically, repeatedly urging their flocks & staffs (current & former) to come forward with any information or suspicions to law enforcement. Until they do this,
- help us change the archaic and restrictive statutes of limitations (civil and criminal) that prevent legal action against these men.
Until you and your fellow church leaders take these steps, your excuse that "we’ve got to put these guys somewhere" will ring hollow.
Finally, we want to point out that despite nearly four years of repeated pledges by bishops to be more "open" and "transparent" about abuse, every single fact we and the public have learned about these centers has come from the media, prosecutors, and victims. It’s very hard to have confidence that these facilities are well run and safe when you and the church officials who directly operate them shun public attention and scrutiny and seem so firmly committed to the secrecy which has enabled child molesting priests to get by with their crimes for decades.
We look forward to your response.
Barbara Dorris
Outreach Coordinator, SNAP
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
6245 Westminster
St. Louis MO 63130
314 862 7688
David Clohessy
National Director, SNAP
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
7234 Arsenal Street
St. Louis MO 63143
314 566 9790 cell, 314 645 5915 |
