One More Perp Priest Still Not on Chicago Archdiocese List

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by Kay Ebeling

My luck. I click on Chicago radio to hear about the snow and instead find out Cardinal George is releasing names of 30 priests credibly accused as pedophiles. (30 more priests, why doesn't the Archdiocese release say 30 more priests?)  Standing there in my kitchen hearing the news I shout out loud, as I doubt the Chicago Archdiocese and Francis George are ever going to acknowledge my perp priest and what they let him do to me and my sister in the 1950s.  

Go Somewhere Else

Father Thomas Barry Horne was founding pastor at St. Peter Damian Church in Bartlett, which today is a Northwest Suburb but in 1949, when the parish began, was just a small country farm town with a few thriving nightclubs downtown near the train station.  In all there have been three pedophile priests as pastors of this one small town church, which curiously, was named for the monk who first wrote about the perils of pedophilia in the priesthood in the Eleventh Century. 

Last week Cardinal George said in his muddled explanation for the release of the list and the church’s handling of pedophile priests, “The response, in retrospect, was not always adequate to all the facts, but a mistake is not a cover up.”

George added “It’s difficult to set the record straight.”   And, “telling the truth does not create an excuse for failure.”   Source NBC Chicago 

Attorneys for the Chicago Archdiocese and Cardinal George can legally ignore the Ebeling sisters case because of Illinois’ “Dead Man's Statute,” in other words because Horne has been dead since the 1970s.  The Archdiocese does not deny he was a pedophile priest, just assert that because of Illinois law, they do not have to deal with the case of the Ebeling sisters.

From April 2011 to a few weeks ago, attorneys for the church even had me doubting my own story, things they said to me in our mediation meeting left me thinking my sister had made the whole thing up and had gotten me to think it happened when it didn't.  Then my sister disappeared without a trace for a year which left me wondering even more.  Then I tracked down my sister and we talked last December, and now once again I know the whole story is true, and I am ready to keep blogging.  My sister’s memories of what happened with Father Horne are more distinct than mine as she’s five years older than me. 

But, man the Catholic Church through its lawyers had me going for a while there.  Not even believing my own self. 

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I wonder what the circumstances were back in 1949 that led the Chicago archdiocese to name the church in Bartlett after St. Peter Damian in the first place.  When I first arrived in the “survivor community” in the 1990s I heard about the monk who way back in the Eleventh Century wrote about deviant priests abusing the sacraments to perform outrageous sexual acts on vulnerable young people. 

So last week I asked author, pedophile priest survivor-advocate and Vatican scholar, Jay Nelson about St. Peter Damian and he pointed out to me, once again, that the information I asked for is in his book, and sent me this information:

From Sons of Perdition, chap. 3, pg. 18-19:

St. Peter Damian’s most famous work was an essay addressed to Pope Leo IX called The Book of Gomorah. He acknowledged the power imbalance in any relationship between priest and layperson, or between different clerical ranks, for that matter. He described clerical sex as a kind of “spiritual incest” and stated that bishops who did not discipline errant clergy were just as guilty as the offenders.  He was well aware that power just made the opportunities to abuse greater.“For we indeed punish the acts of impurity performed by priests in the minor ranks, but with bishops, we pay our reverence with silent tolerance, which is totally absurd,” he wrote.
He even described how bishops who had sex with their own clergy abused the seal of Confession. The bishops would confess to their inferiors or hear their confessions to keep them from revealing the sin.
He suggested that any monk who seduced boys or adolescents be confined to a monastery where he could be watched, given harsh and degrading public penance, and even deposed from Holy Orders.

Jay then suggested I read C. Colt Anderson, "When magisterium becomes imperium: Peter Damian on the accountability of bishops for scandal," Theological Studies, Dec. 1, 2004, which he says can be found on the Internet and I will get around to it, one day I will get around to it.

Meanwhile, I think it's weird that one small town church way out on the outskirts of Cook County and in the farthest reaches of the Chicago Archdiocese should end up with three (3) pedophile priests as pastors since 1949: one its founder, who the Archdiocese still does not have to acknowledge was a pedophile priest because it was too many years ago (amendments to the statute of limitations in Illinois in 2013 did not open windows for civil lawsuits and discovery of documents in cases like mine as they did in almost every other state).  (Yes, Illinois is one of the most corrupt state in the country, led by to New Jersey, and well, Alabama and Mississippi, but I digress.) And the other two, William Lupo and James Ray, were removed from ministry by Bernardin. 

I will be writing more about St. Peter Damian Church in Bartlett in the future. 

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By far the funniest coverage of last week’s display of PR prowess by Cardinal George was at the Chicago Board of Tirade at Chicago Now here’s a quote:

Chicago's Francis Cardinal George will be remembered for two over-riding themes in his tenure as head of the Chicago Archdiocese, administrator of the largest parochial school system in the world.  His main theme is a relentless condemnation of all things homosexual, especially gay marriage.His other cause, steadfastly championed by the 50-year priest is concealing both the sexual abuse of children by priests and the identities of the perpetrators.  To sum up the George Doctrine:  Pervs good, homos bad.At their core, these really aren't two separate themes,  just two sides of the same coin.  Like John Candy said in Uncle Buck, "You’re not a gnat are you Bug? Wait a minute, Bug, gnat. Is there a little similarity? Whoa, I think there is!"There's a scary similarity here, not to mention a perverse hypocrisy at work.  Cardinal George endlessly interjects his opinion into secular affairs that don't concern him and affect mostly non-members of his Church, while condemning any attempt to root out and punish pedophile priests.A report describing abuse by 30 of the Church's offenders and 40 of their victims is going to be turned over to attorneys suing the Archdiocese.  The documents will be made public later this week.  As one might guess, the Church fought the disclosures.Included in this week's bulletin to parishioners, the Cardinal included a letter which said, in part, “Painful though publicly reviewing the past may be, it is part of the accountability and transparency to which the archdiocese is committed.  It will be helpful, we pray, for some, but painful for many.”  The policy of transparency to which Cardinal George refers isn't always clear to see

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Perp priest Thomas Barry Horne is still also not listed on either of these recent updates, first from Bishop Accountability:

 Chicago – Updated at the same URL with no "revised on" date and no indication of who has been added or what has been changed; see our cached copies of earlier versions; numbers in brackets indicate additions, subtractions, and current totals of priests with substantiated allegations: 3/20/06(+15=55; see Brachear article for prior total); 9/15/08 (+7=62); 1/4/10 (+3–1=64); 1/14/10 (+1=65);10/4/10 (same total as 1/14/10 but updated entries on Craig, Hagan, Hoder, Holihan, Huppenbauer, Kissane, Mayer, McCaffrey, and Weston); 7/5/11 (same total as 10/4/10 but updated entries on Bowman, Flosi, Hoder, and Kissane); 7/19/11 (downloaded 1/9/14)

Here is George’s list of roughly 65 predator priests he admits to so far:

http://www.archchicago.org/c_s_abuse/report_032006/list.pdf

However, here’s a list of 121 Chicago predator priests – compiled through public records by an independent organization:

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AtAGlance/lists.htm

Still no mention of Horne

Phew,

HORNE IS STILL HERE UNDER H IN BISHOP ACCOUNTABILITY DATABASE

http://bishop-accountability.org/priestdb/PriestDBbylastName-H.html

They got him removed once before in 2010 for a whole year, but I got his name back in there.  I'm the girl who popped back to life when they tried to kill me. 

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Okay.

If I'm going to continue being a journalist writing on this topic, I have to take a deep breath and read Cardinal George’s letter to parishioners last Sunday about his handling of pedophile priests.

Here is the letter

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

This January, as was announced a month ago in a press conference by a plaintiff’s lawyer, documents relating to the sexual misconduct of 30 priests of the archdiocese will be released as part of settlement agreements over the past years. All these incidents were reported over the years to the civil authorities and claims have been mediated civilly. Almost all of the incidents happened decades ago, perpetrated by priests whom neither I nor many younger clergy have ever met or talked to, because the priests were either dead or out of ministry before I came to Chicago as archbishop.

(RIGHT AWAY HE STARTS DEFLECTING GUILT)

Nevertheless, the publication puts the actions of these men and the archdiocese itself in the spotlight.

(IT'S OUR FAULT THEY'RE GETTING BAD PUBLICITY)

Painful though publicly reviewing the past can be, it is part of the accountability and transparency to which the archdiocese is committed. For more than 20 years, the archdiocese has reported all allegations of sexual abuse to the civil authorities and to DCFS. Records of priests have been shared with civil authorities when asked for. Accountability to the civil authorities constitutionally responsible for the protection of children is part of the life of the church here. The names of priests known to have abused a minor are published on the archdiocesan website (www.archchicago.org), and the archdiocese will offer more information in the future. But publishing for all to read the actual records of these crimes raises transparency to a new level. It will be helpful, we pray, for some, but painful for many.

(PAINFUL FOR YOU, MAYBE) 

Pope Francis has spoken several times in recent months about “clericalism” as a vice. Clericalism appears when a person or group decides it is not accountable for its actions. Clericalism in the clergy is evident when a priest decides he is not accountable to his bishop or to the faithful for what he teaches or how he celebrates the church’s liturgy or pastors the church’s people or when a bishop, in turn, is not accountable to his councils and his clergy for his own ministry…

A more recent episode that has created distrust and injured the archdiocesan community is that of Daniel McCormack. The public story, up to this point, has been largely fashioned by plaintiffs’ lawyers and other activists and deliberately distorts or ignores points that would mitigate the charge of archdiocesan neglect. For the sake of complete transparency, as well as accountability, I want to put on the public record the following facts:

(MORE DEFLECTING GUILT)

1) Neither in Chicago nor in any previous posting as a bishop or a religious superior have I assigned to pastoral ministry or transferred for ministry a priest whom I knew to have sexually abused a child.

(IT'S NOT MY FAULT, I JUST WORK HERE)

2) When I came to Chicago as archbishop, Father Daniel McCormack had a reputation as a dedicated priest and an effective pastor. He had been ordained by Cardinal Bernardin, who vetted his seminary record. He was already, before I became archbishop, appointed to a seminary faculty, a position of trust. He had been elected by his peers to represent them on the priests’ placement board, a sign of confidence in his judgment by those who knew him best. Just months before his first arrest, he was recommended by those who worked with him in reorganizing the parishes on the West Side to serve as dean for that area. He was dedicated to ministry in African-American parishes in poor neighborhoods. He was trusted and admired.

(WHO CARES IF HE’S A PERVERT, LOOK AT ALL HIS GOOD WORKS)

3) The first association of his name with the possible sexual abuse of a minor was made for me in September 2005, when I was told that the police had arrested him, questioned him about the allegation and then released him without charges. He was put under monitoring and his ministry with children restricted while the archdiocese began to investigate whether there was “reasonable cause to suspect” that he had sexually abused a child. The investigation was hampered because the various offices involved did not consistently share what they knew with each other or with me. Nor did the civil authorities share with the archdiocese what they came to know in their investigations. From the time he was arrested and released to the time that he was arrested a second time and eventually pled guilty, no one involved in investigating the allegation, not even the review board that struggled with their justified concerns, told me they thought he was guilty.

4) After McCormack’s second arrest in January 2006, a number of incidents came forward that might have served as warning signals along the way, if people had been more wary. Each of them, when the record is fairly presented, was examined and responded to by the authorities concerned. The response, in retrospect, was not always adequate to all the facts, but a mistake is not a cover up.

This is not a story that fits the template that has been used to report sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, which is why it’s difficult to set the record straight. Nor is the record, even when set straight, one that any of us can easily put together with what we expect the church to be. Telling the truth does not create an excuse for failure. But it makes a difference, as we go forward, to know in what the failure consists, to know that the truth has been told and that the church is committed to accountability and transparency.

(METHINKS THE CARDINAL DOTH PROTEST TOO MUCH)

Most of all, this archdiocese is committed to trying to help victims of sexual abuse achieve the freedom necessary to live with dignity.

(BULLSH-- THEY SPIT OUT A WHOPPING FIVE THOUSAND DOLLAR SETTLEMENT OFFER FOR ME AFTER THEIR PRIEST COMPLETELY DETOURED MY LIFE)

The Archdiocesan Office for the Protection of Children and Youth is a ministry that brings hope and freedom to many victims. It is responsible for the extensive system of background checks and training in child protection that every employee and volunteer in the archdiocese must undergo. Its story should be better known, again for the sake of accountability and transparency.

(MONITORING OF EMPLOYEES AND VOLUNTEERS WHEN IT'S PRIESTS WHO STILL OPERATE WITH AUTONOMY WHO ARE THE PERPS)

Monetary recompense is part of helping victims and making reparation to them. The funding of sexual abuse settlements comes from a stream of revenue entirely separate from regular donations or investments. Over the years, the archdiocese has bought a great deal of property for possible institutional expansion. Sale of some of that undeveloped property is the source of the revenues for funding sexual abuse settlements. It has not been and would not be used for normal archdiocesan operating expenses.

(IT AIN’T ABOUT GOD, IT'S A CORPORATION)

Finally, all our actions are transparent to the Lord, to whom each of us is accountable. (YUP) He is a merciful judge, and I ask you to commend to him in your prayers the victims, the perpetrators and the archdiocese at this time in our history.

(OH RIGHT, IMMEDIATELY START CLAIMING SOME KIND OF SPECIAL CONNECTION TO GOD AND SCARING PEOPLE

Once again, I apologize to all those who have been harmed by these crimes and this scandal, the victims themselves, most certainly, but also rank and file Catholics who have been shamed by the actions of some priests and bishops. Thank you and God bless you.

(NOTHING BUT WORDS, all vetted by their lawyers and PR guys, nothing genuine here at all.  No admission of guilt, constant deflecting.  Nothing changes with these guys.)

Documents get released Wednesday and to be made public next week.

I'll read those

Maybe find something that ties to my perp.

Sigh.  Puke.

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Meanwhile

The same week as the Cardinal’s letter, came the news that six more Catholic schools were closing in the Chicago Archdiocese. 

After the stories I've heard in seven years of doing this blog, I'm shocked that people are still sending their children to Catholic schools.  So when I see stories like this one and I feel a sense of relief. 

At least 6 schools in Chicago archdiocese slated toclose 

Chicago Tribune-7 hours agoShare

Six elementary schools in the Chicago Archdiocese are slated to closeat the end of the school year, and more could join that list before the end ...

“Parents of students at each closing school will receive a list of other Catholic schools to consider within a five-mile radius.  All students will receive $1,000 vouchers, “to say to parents ‘we're sorry and we hope you continue to choose Catholic education.'”

No offense, but if you believe anything the bishops or anyone around them is telling you, you need a vacation at a nearby college where you can take a reading comprehension course.

Those schools are closing because they don't make money. The Chicago Archdiocese a George Cardinal George are a Corporation Sole, you can read it on my legal papers.  Jesus is rolling over outside his grave right now watching this Church make an abomination of his Word, including the moneymaking.  Wake up. 

And get your kids into a school where there are normal humans conducting oversight.  Never trust a man in a dress with mesmerizing eyes and a gold cross dangling around his neck. 

Because those inner city kids whose parents think they are doing them good by sending them to Catholic schools are at risk, I'm glad enrollment is down.

LETTER FROM FRANCIS CARDINAL GEORGE, OMI, ARCHBISHOP OF CHICAGO

CHICAGO (IL)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago

[Espanol]

January 9, 2014

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

This January, as was announced a month ago in a press conference by a plaintiff's lawyer, documents relating to the sexual misconduct of thirty priests of the Archdiocese will be released as part of settlement agreements over the past years. All these incidents were reported over the years to the civil authorities and claims have been mediated civilly. Almost all of the incidents happened decades ago, perpetrated by priests whom neither I nor many younger clergy have ever met or talked to, because the priests were either dead or out of ministry before I came to Chicago as Archbishop.

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There have been three pedophile priests as pastors of this one small town church, St. Peter Damian parish in Bartlett, named for the Monk who first wrote about the perils of pedophilia in the priesthood,

James Ray came in 1975 when Horne left.  William Lupo was pastor from 1999 to 2003.

Where are they now, Ray and Lupo, well a Chicago Tribune story in 2002 says priests removed by Bernardin were living in a retreat center with the other priests on the grounds of Mundelein Seminary. 

No further information is available. 

More on Ray and Lupoat City of Angels Blog from 2008

or in bishop accountability database under R

Or 

In the database under L
where in the Database photo, Lupo looks like Snidely Whiplash. 

I'll be writing a lot more about Horne, St. Peter Damian, my sister, and our experiences with the Church and recovery, here and at CofA 15. http://cityofangels15.blogspot.com where I'm publishing my whole story over the next few years.

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(More from Jay Nelson’s book, Sons of Perdition: New Mexico in the Secret History of the Catholic Sex Scandals about St. Peter Damian:)

Finally, however, a violent ascetic reaction against such secular influences began in earnest. St. Peter Damian, “the last monk,” who died in 1072, was the firebrand who ignited the reform movement. A noble-born but neglected baby, the compassionate wife of a priest saved his life. He wouldre-pay this kindness by devoting most of his life to wiping out her class.

Finally, however, a violent ascetic reaction against such secular influences began in earnest. St. Peter Damian, “the last monk,” who died in 1072, was the firebrand who ignited the reform movement. A noble-born but neglected baby, the compassionate wife of a priest saved his life. He would re-pay this kindness by devoting most of his life to wiping out her class.

Famed for his asceticism and intellect, Damian became first a prior and eventually the highest cardinal in Rome. His voluminous writings promoted a revolutionary Church that was in effect a theocratic empire, demanding absolute allegiance from the clergy, and separated from the people by self-inflicted austerities whose performance entitled the clergy to their reverence and obedience.

His most famous work was an essay addressed to Pope Leo IX called The Book of Gomorah. It was a shocking exposé of the excesses endemic in monasteries, a bitter diatribe against the laxity of monkish morals, and sodomy in particular, “the saddest of all the sad monuments bequeathed to us by that age of desolation.” Here is a sample of his ranting:

"Vice against nature creeps in like a cancer and even touches the order of consecrated men. Sometimes it rages like a bloodthirsty beast in the midst of the sheepfold of Christ with such bold freedom that it would have been much healthier for many to have been oppressed under the yoke of a secular army than to be freely delivered over to the iron rule of diabolical tyranny under the cover of religion, particularly when this is accomplished by scandal to others."

He condemned not only clerical homosexuality but also marriage, stigmatizing the wives of priests as harlots and their husbands as unbridled adulterers, and also promoted anti-Semitism for good measure. His missions, however, sometimes met with physical resistance. Several times he barely escaped with his life from enraged clerics. In Milan, the solution he imposed sparked almost twenty years of rioting and civil strife.

Though given the highest honors, Damian resigned as cardinal and returned to his cell to die. The praise continued after his death, too. Not only named as a saint, Pope Leo XII gave him the title of “Doctor of Reform” in 1823 – more likely for his efforts in promoting the papacy than for his opposition to clerical sex.

Despite his rhetoric, Damian was more complex than a simple fire-breathing misogynist, however. He acknowledged the power imbalance in any relationship between priest and layperson, or between different clerical ranks, for that matter. He described clerical sex as a kind of “spiritual incest” and stated that bishops who did not discipline errant clergy were just as guilty as the offenders.

He was well aware that power just made the opportunities to abuse greater.

“For we indeed punish the acts of impurity performed by priests in the minor ranks, but with bishops, we pay our reverence with silent tolerance, which is totally absurd,” he wrote.

He even described how bishops who had sex with their own clergy abused the seal of Confession. The bishops would confess to their inferiors or hear their confessions to keep them from revealing the sin.

He suggested that any monk who seduced boys or adolescents be confined to a monastery where he could be watched, given harsh and degrading public penance, and even deposed from Holy Orders.

He died already revered shortly before the election of another cardinal-monk, Hildebrand, a clerical revolutionary. As Pope St. Gregory VII, he would implement the reforms Damian only dreamed of. Gregory, with his celebrated defiance of the German Emperor, laid the foundation for the Church’s dominance over the State that characterized the High Middle Ages.

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So why did the Chicago Archdiocese name that church in Bartlett after St. Peter Damian and send Father Thomas Barry Horne there to start it in 1949?

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See, I don't think  Trish and I would have been promiscuous at all if the stuff hadn’t happened with Father Horne.  The response played out differently in the two of us.  Trish just enjoyed it, lived in San Francisco where she could go to the Hookers and Dancers Ball and be among friends. 

Me, I tried to be straight, I tried to work at NASA in the daytime and be a slut by night and it did not work.  My sister, I think, ended up a lot happier than I am as a result. 

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Posted by Kay Ebeling, 

Producer of City of Angels Blog since Jan 2007

The City of Angels Is Everywhere

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References

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Chicago-Catholics-to-See-Letter-on-Abuse-This-Sunday-239117041.html#ixzz2pkjV1cOp 

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http://www.amazon.com/Sons-Perdition-History-Catholic-Scandals/dp/1439234825/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389812999&sr=1-4&keywords=sons+of+perdition

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http://www.chicagonow.com/chicago-board-tirade/2014/01/cardinal-george-pedophile/

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http://cityofangels12.blogspot.com/2012/04/chi-archdiocese-tries-to-silence-cofa.html

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http://cityofangels4.blogspot.com/2008/06/blog-post.html

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-Kay E