CATHOLIC MIAMI VICE
Archbishop Favalora |
John C. Favalora is
a sallow old man who looks like the corpse of Dom DeLuise. He likes attractive
young men to sit on his lap and allegedly treats them to trips in the Florida
Keys. He was, until recently, part owner of a company that makes "all natural"
boner-inducing beverages.
He's also the Archbishop Emeritus of Miami.
Favalora, who was
the most powerful Catholic official in Southern Florida from 1994 until last
year, stands accused of cultivating what one group of pissed-off Catholics
describes as a corrupt "homosexual superculture" in the 195 churches,
schools, missions, seminaries, and universities that constitute the Miami
Archdiocese. If their allegations are to be believed, for sixteen years
Favalora ran his organization like the don of a lavender mob, rewarding his
favorite homosexual sons and forgiving their many indiscretions—rampant sex,
hedonism, embezzlement, alcoholism, and the railroading of chaste priests among
them—while punishing those with the temerity to complain. Wanton hedonistic gay
sex is of course unobjectionable—even encouraged!—among those not in thrall to
the idea that God hates your penis. But for the 500-or-so priests and deacons
charged by The Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI with ensuring the spiritual
integrity of 1.3 million of God's children in Southern Florida,
it's…unorthodox.
Favalora's accusers
are loosely organized under the name "Christifidelis," and in 2005
they undertook an extensive investigation of priestly misbehavior in the
Archdiocese. They now believe their findings resulted in Archbishop Favalora's
sacking last year, and his replacement by a manly, conservative workaholic
named Thomas Wenski.
Revelation = John - A.D. 90The leader of Christifidelis, an attorney named Sharon Bourassa, declined to comment for this story. But it hardly matters. Christifidelis's exertions on behalf of Mother Church are recorded in an enormous, binder-bound document entitled "Miami Vice: A Preliminary Report on the Financial, Spiritual, and Sexual Improprieties of the Clergy of the Miami Archdiocese." Today, for the first time, Gawker is releasing portions of it to the public.
Revelation = John - A.D. 90The leader of Christifidelis, an attorney named Sharon Bourassa, declined to comment for this story. But it hardly matters. Christifidelis's exertions on behalf of Mother Church are recorded in an enormous, binder-bound document entitled "Miami Vice: A Preliminary Report on the Financial, Spiritual, and Sexual Improprieties of the Clergy of the Miami Archdiocese." Today, for the first time, Gawker is releasing portions of it to the public.
A Kind of Gay
Hogwarts With Palm Trees
Here are just some of the un-Catholic behaviors
that "Miami Vice" accuses Favalora of engaging in: He partially owned
a company that manufactured Yohimbe, an aphrodisiac beverage marketed to horny
club-kids with the promise of "the hands-down best sex of your life."
He allegedly took frequent trips to fabulous Key West with his gay associates.
He was over-familiar toward his seminarians. (One ex-employee of the diocese
recalls him telling a young seminarian at a gathering to "Come to papa and
sit on my lap.")
Favalora's second- and third-in-command, Monsignor
William Hennessey and Monsignor Michael Souckar, are both accused by
Christefidelis of being active homosexuals—and if they are, that counts among
the least of their difficulties with Catholic orthodoxy.
Yohimbe |
Favarola - Hennessy insert |
In fact, the
Archdiocese was a hotbed of sodomy long before Favalora set foot in Florida.
Two unrelated sources, both priests, speak of a flamboyantly gay bishop in
Arecibo, Puerto Rico, named Miguel Rodriguez Rodriguez, who was known to his
pupils as "Lili." These sources claim that during the 1970s and 80's,
Lili treated Arecibo like his own personal harem, urging cute young men into
the priesthood and plying them with gifts and money in exchange for sexual favors.
Rome allegedly interceded in 1990 and banished Lili to a secluded monastery,
where he remained until his death 20 years later. Several of Lili's erstwhile
pupils landed in Miami in the 80's and 90's. Naturally, they were disinclined
to take their celibacy oaths too seriously.
Priests speak, too,
about the culture of "sex-driven favoritism" at St. John Vianney
College Seminary—a kind of gay Hogwarts with palm trees, located out in the
flat suburban wastes of southwest Dade County. Seminaries are traditionally gay
places—Papist wits refer to Notre Dame seminary as "Notre Flame,"
Theological College as "Theological Closet," Mundelein as "Pink
Palace," and so on. But St. John Vianney was special. One seminarian who
dropped out in disgust in the 1980s recalls a miserable year being bullied by
gay faculty, and the rector, Robert Lynch, fawning over his favorite
seminarian: an attractive upper-classman named Steven O'Hala. The dropout also
recalls Lynch installing a camera in the seminary's weight room to capture
images of pumped, sweaty seminarians. (He is now a minister in a liberal
Christian denomination, and says he has no beef with gay people.)
"He grabbed my
crotch. Then he apologized, and we became friends."
A similar story is
told by Peter P. Fuchs, an ex-seminarian who was at St. John Vianney during the
last two years of Lynch's tenure. "Steve O'Hala was definitely his boy. He
was very buff—[Lynch] used to take pictures of him in the weight room."
Asked whether Lynch actually installed a camera there, Fuchs laughs. "No.
I think that would have been a little overt."
Robert Lynch
departed St. John Vianney in the mid-80's. Twenty years later, as the bishop of
the St. Petersburg diocese on Florida's west coast, he was accused of sexually
harassing Bill Urbanski, the diocese's spokesman and the father of Lynch's
godson. Funnily enough, one of Urbanski's more mild complaints was that Lynch
liked to photograph him with his shirt off. The diocese settled out of court for
$100,000.
Lynch's replacement
at St. John Vianney was a priest named Bernard Kirlin, whom a former pupil
describes as an openly gay alcoholic. In 1983, Kirlin began an intense
relationship with Peter P. Fuchs, then a young seminarian. "I probably
entered [the seminary] partially because I was attracted to the idea of being
in a gay environment," says Fuchs, an erudite gay man who now lives with
his husband in Washington, D.C. "But I was also very interested in
theology, in the big questions."
Fuchs was in his
third year at St. John Vianney when Kirlin arrived. He was "urbane"
and "brilliant," Fuchs says. "Of course his attention flattered
me." Kirlin gravitated to Fuchs immediately, and invited him to dinner a
few weeks into the academic year along with a few other seminarians. "I
think he probably just invited the boys he thought were hot," says Fuchs.
The two men hit it off, and afterward Kirlin
invited Fuchs back to the faculty building, where the pair sat and talked in
the lounge. "He came on to me," Fuchs says. "Very, very
sloppily. He grabbed my crotch. Then he apologized, and we became
friends."
A Sick Culture
Kirlin and Fuchs
were together "all the time" that year, relaxing, talking, and
especially eating. "We ate out almost every night," says Fuchs.
"Nice restaurants. Remember Charade, in Coral Gables? That was a really,
really expensive restaurant." Eventually it occurred to Fuchs to ask where
the money for these excursions came from. "[Kirlin] told me, 'I work
really hard, and they hardly pay me anything. So I take money out of the slush
fund.'"
Fuchs says he loved
Bernie Kirlin for his mind. He was "a profound mind, a deep mind, and
incredibly fun and funny." Bernie Kirlin seems to have loved Fuchs in a
very different way, with the kind of keening, desperate, altogether
embarrassing love that stunted sexual beings occasionally develop for objects
of unrequited romantic feeling. During the pair's trip to Rome, Fuchs says
Bernie Kirlin would drunkenly enter his room in the small hours of the morning,
wake him, and profess his undying devotion. "It was obnoxious. We fought a
lot on that trip," says Fuchs. "I can't even remember what about. But
the relationship was, at that time, becoming a little cloying."
In an effort to
save it, Fuchs says he decided to sleep with Kirlin, just once. "I can't
believe I was so stupid," he says. "I guess I thought, you know, if I
give him what he wants this one time, maybe he'll be satisfied. What did I
know? I was nineteen." It didn't work. Fuchs says that in the weeks after
their one night stand, Kirlin's ardor intensified.
After graduating
from St. John Vianney, Fuchs was slated to continue his studies at St. Vincent
de Paul in Boynton Beach, Fla. But this was too close to Miami, says Fuchs; an
Archdiocesan official who had grown alarmed by Kirlin's unhealthy fixation on
Fuchs intervened. Fuchs was sent instead to Washington, D.C., where he met his
future husband the following year. "And I got out," he says.
"I'm immensely glad. It's a sick culture. The worst of religion and the
worst of malformed human sexuality, jammed together in one place. The people
who make it through to the priesthood have had to sublimate so much of
themselves, have ignored so much. And then they're supposed to minister to
people? Please."
Kirlin continued
ministering to people, even after he was fired from the seminary. "I'll
never forget it," says a former pupil. "They found [Kirlin] wasted in
the bed of a seminarian. They dragged him out by his feet and his hands—dragged
him all the way to the priest's quarters. He was removed over that Christmas
break." Kirlin went to rehab. After stints in the Florida Keys and a
Haitian neighborhood in Miami, Favalora rewarded him a beautiful parish in
Coral Gables; a lush, moneyed municipality two miles south of downtown Miami.
Father Morales' Live-in Boyfriend
Christifidelis
formed in 2005 after the sacking of Father Andrew Dowgiert from All Saints
Church, in Sunrise, FL, where Dowgiert served as an associate pastor.
Officially, he was sacked because of his bad attitude and fondness for alcohol.
Not so, says Christifidelis.
Dowgiert was a
Polish priest who spent much of the 90's ministering in Zimbabwe, where he
contracted malaria. He was assigned to the Archdiocese of Miami in 1999, and
became an associate pastor at St. Justin Martyr, in Key Largo, under Father
Edward Olszewski. Shortly after Dowgiert's arrival, Olszewski was charged with
having raped a boy decades earlier in Michigan. (Olszewski was convicted, and
sentenced to four years' probation. The conviction was later reversed.) With
Olszewski indisposed, Dowgiert took leadership of St. Justin Martyr for three
years until a permanent pastor was installed. Dowgiert then moved to Good
Shepherd parish in Miami, where he served as associate pastor under Father
Michael Greer. Later, in a lawsuit
Dowgiert filed against the Archdiocese, he alleged that Greer tried
to seduce him.
Here, published for the first time, are excerpts from "Miami Vice:
A Preliminary Report on the …Read more
Dowgiert served at
Good Shepherd for a year. When Favalora announced that Dowgiert was to move
again, Good Shepherd's parishioners petitioned the Archdiocese to reconsider.
According to the lawsuit, "the parishioners complained to Monsignor
Michael Souckar … that Father Greer was not available to them and that Father
[Dowgiert] was a stable priest." The transfer proceeded anyway, and
Dowgiert was assigned to serve under Father Anibal Morales at All Saints'
Church.
Perhaps you can
imagine Dowgiert's state of mind as he undertook his new assignment. He had, in
the last decade, witnessed soul-crushing poverty in Zimbabwean villages,
contended with a life-threatening illness, and been repeatedly forced to
consider the implications of the Mother Church's inability to pair him with a
celibate priest, or even a non-celibate priest who got his rocks off in ways
that didn't involve coercive sodomy. And there he was, walking into Morales's
All Saints rectory, and already he'd heard the rumors. "Morales has a
light touch with the parish funds," and "Morales has a
boyfriend."
Morales may or may
not have had a light touch with parish funds—if he did, he's hardly unusual—but
he was almost certainly a homosexual. Morales first attended seminary in Puerto
Rico, where, incidentally, he is alleged to have been the pupil of the aforementioned
Bishop Miguel "Lili" Rodriguez Rodriguez. Despite his august
patronage, he was allegedly expelled for "sexual misconduct" with
fellow students. He re-enrolled at St. John Vianney Seminary College in Miami,
and was ejected from there, too. According to Dowgiert's lawsuit, Favalora
interceded on Morales's behalf, and placed him under the tutelage of Father
Gary Wiseman. (Allegedly, Wiseman himself was subsequently exiled to
Mandeville, Jamaica, after accusations of sexual misconduct.) Morales received
holy orders shortly thereafter.
Between his
ordination and star-crossed meeting with Dowgiert, Morales scooted from church
to church, pissing off parishioners wherever he went. According to Dowgiert's
lawsuit, Morales's tenure at St. Francis de Sales was marked by rumors of
missing parish funds. At St. John, Morales earned his parishioners' wrath by
parading his boyfriend in front of a youth group. (This resulted in a formal
letter of complaint to the Archdiocese.) By the time Dowgiert arrived at All Saints,
Morales's reputation was tanking there, too.
Ejection from the Rectory
Upon Dowgiert's
arrival, Morales departed for a six-week vacation with his alleged live-in
boyfriend, Carlos Insignares, leaving the parish in Dowgiert's care. Dowgiert
was soon approached by a deacon who expressed concern about Morales's handling
of church money. As Dowgiert was responsible for signing church checks during
Morales's absence, he began carefully questioning Morales's secretary about the
checks' purposes. According to the lawsuit, the secretary was greatly
discomfited, and interrupted Morales's vacation to tell him about Dowgiert's
snooping. And so Dowgiert and Morales's relationship was strained before it had
rightly begun.
owns a condo with his alleged boyfriend, Carlos
Insignares.
Not long after,
Dowgiert claims he received a visit from Monsignor William Hennessey,
Archbishop Favalora's hatchet man, who asked that Dowgiert cease spending his
off-days in the church rectory. This was an unusual request, as Dowgiert lived
in the rectory. Dowgiert protested; he had nowhere else to go. Hennessey told
him to get a hotel room. According to the lawsuit, "[Dowgiert] understood
this to mean that Morales wanted to be alone with his homosexual lover."
Dowgiert's
relationship with Morales suffered after his ejection from the rectory, and
allegedly ceased to exist after Morales's boyfriend came to the church to
conduct a "training exercise" and insulted Dowgiert in front of other
parish employees. In 2004, Morales sent a letter to Favalora accusing Dowgiert
of alcoholism, cruelty, and crudity; his letter was substantiated by several
accompanying notes from parish staff, all of whom reported Dowgiert's strange
words from his first week at All Saints as evidence of his bitter, un-Catholic
outlook: "Don't remind me of my ordination." Hennessey summoned
Dowgiert to discuss the charges, and informed Dowgiert he was to be sent away
for treatment. According to the lawsuit, Dowgiert asked to speak to a lawyer,
at which point Hennessey verbally terminated Dowgiert's employment.
Andrew Dowgiert
was, most claim, a good priest; a priest who had never been in trouble, who
saved St. Justin Martyr when its pastor was nabbed for boy-rape. A great many
of All Saints most devout senior parishioners liked and admired him. They
wondered: Why was the Archdiocese defending a non-celibate homosexual with a
history of unpriestly behavior, and casting aside a devout, heroic priest who'd
single-handedly rescued one of its parishes?
First they wondered
privately. Then they wondered aloud. When a lay minister at All Saints named
Gloria Luca was fired for wondering too loudly, they sought answers.
Christifidelis was born.
Miami Vice
Sharon Bourassa,
Christifidelis' founder, is an attorney who works entirely pro-bono, providing
lawyerly aid to the poor. She represented Dowgiert in his lawsuit. The suit was
unsuccessful (the judge decided the Catholic church has the right to be as
skeazy as it wants), but yielded interesting things.
During a pre-trial
investigation, for example, it emerged that Anibal Morales and his alleged
boyfriend, Carlos Insignares, bought a house together on SW 13th Street, in
Miami, where they cohabitated on Morales's days off; that Morales had granted
Insignares power of attorney; that Insignares made extensive use of a gay
hookup site called Bear411; and that Insignares was (and presumably still is)
uncircumsized. The printout at right was discovered in the trash outside of
Morales's and Insignares' home.
This
photodocumentary evidence, along with filings from Dowgiert's lawsuit, make up
a large portion of the document called "Miami Vice," the introduction
to which reads, in part:
Here, published for the first time, are excerpts from "Miami Vice:
A Preliminary Report on the …Read more
In accordance with the rights and
duties guaranteed them by the Catholic tradition, the faithful of the
Archdiocese of Miami wish to make known to their pastors at Rome the spiritual
condition which they find themselves in in the aforementioned Archdiocese. To
the point, it has come to their attention that there exists among the clergy of
the Archdiocese a 'gay' superculture which fosters active homosexual activity,
the misspending and misdirecting of parish funds, and the persecution of those
(clergy and laity) who question this type of activity...
What follows are
hundreds of pages of documentation divided into nine chapters and four
appendices, consisting mostly of anonymous testimony accusing various diocesan
priests of wanton promiscuity and financial misdeeds over the course of Favalora's
reign. These testimonies were compiled with the help of concerned Floridian
Catholics, priests and laity alike, with a great deal to lose if their
involvement with Christifidelis became public. Which is why the accusations are
generally accompanied by statements like this one: "The primary source for
this information is the above-mentioned priest-brother, whose name and contact
information will be made available upon request."
That is, "upon
request" from a Catholic official of the appropriate rank. The intended
audience for "Miami Vice" was never the press. It was the Vatican.
"We're defending the Church," says Eric Giunta, an ex-seminarian and
contributor to "Miami Vice." "It's essential to remember—the
last thing we wanted was to hurt her."
Christifidelis was
initially hopeful. In 2006, Bourassa received a visit from a Vatican official
she cannot name. (She told Giunta the visitor was a Cardinal, but that's all.)
The visitor listened sympathetically, and promised to investigate. Bourassa
heard no more. Giunta says he convinced Bourassa to unleash "Miami
Vice" upon the press at the end of 2008, when, at the far extremity of
pious desperation, he decided only a public scandal might spur the Church to
action. Neither Giunta nor Bourassa had any way of knowing that even as they
hounded reporters, Favalora was packing his bags. When Favalora announced his
retirement, they realized their mistake. After February, 2010, the world's journalists
would hear no more from Christifidelis. They weren't about to make Wenski's
life any harder by siccing some gutter-brained reporter on the Archdiocese at
the most fragile stage of its recovery. Which is why, of all the members of
Christifidelis, only Eric Giunta is now willing to go on record, and only
reluctantly.
Why? "Because
Wenski's not moving fast enough," he says. "He's walking a fine
line." Giunta suggests that Wenski, though "a very good Bishop"
who probably "wants to do the right thing," is hemmed in by political
considerations. "If you walk into the Archdiocese and fire
everybody," he says, "there's going to be a scandal." Giunta is
willing to talk, he says, because scandal might "allow [Wenski] more
freedom to act."
Though it's easy to
imagine Giunta wants the Archdiocese to squirm for more personal reasons, too.
As of 2005:
·
A priest who's been previously
mentioned in this story was known to plan regular "sleepovers" with
seminarians at his rectory in southwest Miami, and owned a "luxury"
property.
·
A homosexual priest in Coral Gables
owned "luxury" property and regularly used illicit drugs.
·
A homosexual priest who served as
principal at one of the Archdiocese's high schools poached sexual partners from
among the seminarians at St. John Vianney.
·
A homosexual priest in far, far south
Miami kept attractive young men living in his rectory.
·
A homosexual priest in the town of
Miramar was co-habitating with his lover, who's also a parishioner.
·
A homosexual priest in Miami had a
lover who was also a priest in the Florida Keys. They co-owned a condominium at
a Yacht Club.
·
A member of the Archdiocesan Tribunal
owned a condominium on ritzy Bayshore Drive, in Miami, with his male lover.
·
An Archdiocesan official sought out
"young boys from third-world countries, from unprivileged backgrounds, and
recruited them for the Archdiocese's seminaries. These men [were] groomed to
engage in sexual relationships with the older homosexual priests of the
Archdiocese." Until 1998, this official owned a home with a male lover in
northern Miami.
·
Two homosexual priests, each with his
own Miami parish, co-habitated in Miami Shores.
·
Two homosexual priests, each with his
own parish, were lovers; one liked to go shopping "with the girls" on
Lincoln Road for feminine cosmetics; the other used to date one of the
Archdiocese's male IT personnel.
·
A homosexual priest in Sunny Isles
liked to jog nude on the gay-dominated, clothing-optional beach at nearby
Haulover Park.
·
A monsignor liked to flash his willy
at young men.
·
A monsignor slept with his female (!)
parishioners.
·
A priest got busted attempting to buy
sex from an undercover male cop.
·
A homosexual priest pissed off
parishioners by using a banana to demonstrate proper condom usage to young
children, contrary to the birth-control method prescribed by the Church
(abstinence).
·
More recently, an associate pastor
had received full pastorship at a church in the Florida Keys after being caught
en flagrante delecto with his male lover—while the person who caught him, a
Philippino priest, was booted from the Archdiocese.
·
And these are just the priests about
whom something unusual has been said. It excludes the many who were merely
non-celibate homosexuals, or who have been accused only of embezzling money.
And it excludes the 33 Miami priests (and one nun) accused of criminal sexual abuse.
(Of course, there is some overlap.)
It's unlikely that
all of these allegations are true, and of the ones that are, it's unlikely that
all are symptomatic of corruption or moral depravity. But some must be. Perhaps
the most difficult allegations to explain away are those which have attached
themselves to two particular individuals, whose names were repeated again and
again in interviews and in the pages of "Miami Vice": Monsignor
William Hennessey and the erstwhile mentor of Peter P. Fuchs, Father Bernie
Kirlin.
Monsignor Hennesey's
Bondage Gear
"He's a sweet
man, very kind," says a diocesan priest of Bill Hennessey, which is what
just about everyone says of the man. Nicest guy in the diocese, and maybe the
most corrupt.
A passage from an interview transcript included in "Miami Vice" in
which an Archdiocese worker claims that Monsignor William Hennessey kept a
photo of a male security guard employed by the Archdiocese "dressed like
he was a stripper club."
Bill Hennessey spent
much of the 70's and 80's as the principal of Monsignor Pace Senior High
School, in Miami Gardens, where one of his employees was a young Bill
O'Reilly—the shouty Fox News talking head was a history teacher there before he
got his start. Hennessey allegedly stole a great deal of money from Pace in a
variety of canny ways—for instance, by siphoning money from a trust fund set up
for a quadriplegic student. (The student eventually brought charges against
Hennessey, some of which stuck.)
When Favalora arrived
in the Archdiocese, "the finances were a mess" at Pace High,
according to the former diocesan priest, and Hennessey was quietly removed from
his position and replaced with his good friend Dr. Richard Perhla. Hennessey
was installed as Favalora's "Vicar General"—a kind of Archdiocesan
enforcer, who wields the Archbishop's power and acts in his stead.
Meanwhile,
Hennessey lived in a condominium in Quayside Towers, in Miami Beach, with a man
who was almost certainly his lover. (They had mutual rights of survivorship.)
He maintained a friendship with Perhla—himself a gay man with a
live-in-lover—and remained on the high school's board of directors. He was
joined there by another friend, a physician named Dr. Jerome Waters, who
handled physical examinations for Pace students trying out for sports teams.
Waters was gay too. In the mid-90's, one of his young lovers apparently shot
one of his ex-lovers to death on his lawn.
For years, two
rumors about Bill Hennessey circulated endlessly through the Archdiocese. The
first was of his passion for bondage gear. The other involved his funky
financial relationship with the local high schools, and in particular with the
brand-new Archbishop McCarthy High, of which his close friend Dr. Richard
Perhla was the first-ever principle. "There was some kind of stink there,
with Hennessey acting as a 'consultant,'" says a diocesan priest.
"They'd talk on the phone, Hennessey and Perhla—and remember, these guys
are great friends—and then Hennessey would bill Perhla for his time." Money
for nothing.
When Archbishop
Wenski assumed control of the Miami Archdiocese, he immediately initiated an
audit of the local high schools. The results of the audit have not been
published, but they mustn't have been good: Just before the beginning of the
recent school year, Perhla was sacked from Archbishop McCarthy High, and was
allegedly escorted from the premises by security. Monsignor Hennessey announced
his retirement a month later.
A Late-Night
Shredding Party
Like Bill
Hennessey, Bernie Kirlin's career has been dogged by rumors of financial ill
deeds. After he was ejected from a seminarian's bed at St. John Vianney, Kirlin
served as a pastor in the Keys, and then in a Miami ghetto. In 1999, Favalora
appointed him to lead the congregation at St. Augustine, in Coral Gables, where
he replaced Father Terrence Hogan, himself a former employee of St. John
Vianney and alleged non-celibate homosexual.
Hogan was much
beloved of his congregation, not least of all because of his rigid fiscal
discipline. Every month in the parish bulletin, Hogan published a list of the
church's expenses and a summary of its balance sheet. When he departed St.
Augustine, the parish was more than $2 million in the black. Good thing, too:
the physical church had fallen into considerable disrepair. "We did very
little to help the church building," says Maria Diaz, a former member of
St. Augustine's Pastoral Council. "We never believed in spending money on
brick and mortar. We wanted to help people."
Kirlin's first act
upon assuming leadership of the parish was to cease publicizing the church's
finances. When Kirlin left eleven years later, his replacement was shocked to
discover St. Augustine was $1 million in the red.
No one knows for
sure how St. Augustine came to this sad impasse, but speculation must take into
account a number of awkward facts, including Kirlin's purchase, in 2002, of a
condominium on Brickell Avenue, a glittering stretch of road a few hundred
yards from Biscayne Bay. The condo cost $307,000. (In 2002, the average
American diocesan priest made $30,000 per year.)
Three years later,
an employee of Kirlin's accused him of embezzling church moneys, thereby
initiating an internal audit—which was supervised, in part, by Kirlin's
long-time friend and alleged boyfriend Monsignor Michael Souckar, whom Kirlin
had first met on that long-ago night when he treated Souckar, Peter P. Fuchs,
and another "hot" St. John Vianney student to dinner. During the
audit, Kirlin allegedly threw a late-night paper shredding party in the rectory.
Then he fired his accuser, who in turn sued the
Archdiocese for violating whistle-blower protection laws. The
Archdiocese settled out of court, and the plaintiff was compelled to sign a
non-disparagement agreement. She would not comment for this story.
Wenski's Clean-up
Favalora resigned
eight months before attaining the age of 75—the age at which Archbishops
customarily tender their resignations. A friend of his replacement says she
knows why. "For ages [the Vatican] had been begging [Bishop Thomas] Wenski
to come and clean up Favalora's mess, but Wenski wouldn't work with the man. He
said 'Favalora's got to go before I come down there.'" So Favalora went.
September after Favalora's ouster (if it was indeed
an ouster), the Miami Herald ran a brief item detailing some of the changes
instituted in the Archdiocese during the first few months of Wenski's reign.
Mostly, it was a matter of priest-shuffling; moving clerics from one parish to
another.
The priests named
in "Miami Vice" were disproportionately well-represented in the
Herald's account of the shuffle. Of the 35 priests accused by name in the
binder, seven had retired already. Of those remaining, most have been
reassigned.
Wenski shuffled
personnel at all levels of the diocese. Souckar was sent to Rome to pursue
"advanced studies." Morales, the All Saints pastor who clashed with
Dowgiert, was demoted to "parochial vicar." So was another priest
accused of keeping a boyfriend in the rectory. According to canon law, such
demotions are very grave. According to custom, they are very rare.
Dowgiert has
disappeared. A background check suggests he may have spent some time in
Washington state before dropping off the map. Maybe he's in Poland.
Big questions
remain in the Archdiocese. Arguably the worst pedophile priest ever arrested in
the United States, Neil Doherty, is a St. John Vianney alum who spent most of
his career in Florida. He served as the seminary's vocational director under
Robert Lynch. For thirty years, Doherty raped child after child, drugging them
with alcohol and Qualudes and sodomizing them until they bled. He was one of
Kirlin's closest friends, and enjoyed sleepovers in his condo. How much did
Kirlin know? Souckar? Favalora?
The Church isn't
talking, but it may be acting. Apart from priest-shuffling, there is a rumor
circulating among South Floridian clerics that Archbishop Wenski has hired
private investigators to monitor Miami's priests. Christifidelis lays low,
hoping it's true; that the Archdiocese's long orgy of sodomy and illicit cash
is finished. If not, we'll be hearing from them again.
Down through the centuries the Roman Church had episodes of those in high places tending towards "strange" behaviour-Is there any psychological reason for this I wonder or is it just a blatant perversion of power like the roman emperors
ReplyDeleteSean you are right.
DeleteBut you would have hoped that in the 21st Century standards might be better than they were in ancient or medieval times?
Pat,
ReplyDeleteThese revelations from Miami make our difficulties in Down & Connor seem like a "Sunday school picnic" !
Archbishop Wenski has his work cut out.
I am a Priest, but I have to be honest, I think the Catholic Church is beyond saving at this stage. It reminds me of a house suffering with dry-rot; there is only one answer, you tumble it and start over again !
Priest of Down & Connor.
I agree. But Ireland is 30 years behind Europe and the US. We are now going where they were.
DeleteAs a gay priest I have no problems with gays in priesthood. But I have a huge problem with tho homosexualisation of the priesthood and other corruptions.
To the priest at 15:46, yes the church in its present form cannot last. A big wave of the Holy Spirit came into the church between the 60's and 80's,in what was known as Charismatic renewal, it was supressed by the leaders and now what we are seeing is a great increase in lay 'cell groups' meeting in houses every week, when they reach a certain number they split up and form other cells. Very few priests or hierarchy are involved and these groups are increasing worldwide. I take comfort from the fact that Jesus said that the gates of hell would never prevail, so there will always be a remnant of true believers, not with an outward show of religion but an inner power faithful to the Gospel. Remembering that St Paul said that those who were living in devotion to Christ would be certain to be attacked. But the Lord would rather have a small clean healthy church than a big ugly sick infested one.
DeleteYou are right. There are little green shoots here and there - but all outside the institution.
DeleteThe R C congregation in general tended to be talked at rather than included over the centuries. As such they have been conditioned to be subservient. Only when people are liberated from hierarchical slavery will the church in Ireland and the world grow
DeletePat,
ReplyDeleteIf I understand you correctly, do you mean that the Catholic Church in Ireland and Europe , can expect wider corruption and scandals in the future,in both the sexual and financial spheres ?
This fills my heart with dread, as I know the impact the Clerical child abuse scandals had on the credibility of the Church, and the loss of faith.
Priest of Down & Connor.
Sadly that is what I am saying :-( The new scandals will circulate around the homosexualisation of the priesthood and massive financial corruption.
DeleteAdd this to the fact that many priests and bishops do not believe or pray and you have the emergence of a ruthless mafia of wolves in sheep's clothing.
Powerful priests are now motivated by power, money and unsatiated sexual desires.
I have current examples but am restrained by promises of confidentially I have made.
But that will not always benthe case.
By the way the ONLY cure is exposure, exposure, exposure...
DeleteThose with knowledge must ACT or be complicit!
Dear Pat, how right you are. I am old enough to remember poultices being placed on boils and absesses to bring out the pus. There is no healing until the rottenness is exposed and expunged.
DeleteRetired Priest D&C
Pat, I just wanted to know for my own peace of mind. ..are you suggesting that people who have been hurt and don't come forward are complicit? It would be a very heavy burden of guilt to carry.
ReplyDeleteI am. But I understand how hard it is. But if we do not come forward we facilitate ongoing abuse :-)
DeleteIf you are personally affected please do not think I'm pressurising you. And if I can help please allow me.
DeleteLeave the fekkers to rot and build up more communities like the Oratory
ReplyDeleteThat archbishop favorola looks like an florida aligator - a poisonous reptile. He reminds me of Paddy Walsh = another poisonous basilisk. I have no doubt that down and conner has its similar tale of corruption and vice. When will rome send someone like archbishop wenski to clean up this sh--hole? Noel trainor needs to go. He has no balls to face the rotten state of his diocese. he is tinkering with the problems and indulging the perverted fools. I was once a student in the wing and it was rife with sexual vice and corruption. I have not lost sight of the good priests who helped and inspired me in down and connor but there is an evil still to be exposed. Like Miami, it will all come out in the end and journalists in the sunday world and life will be busy reporting the shit storm that is coming.
ReplyDelete