Day: November 11, 2007

McGuire and Cardinal George: The plot is thicker

Grant Gallicho at Dot Commonweal has this about O’Malley the archdiocese’s lawyer, quoted in the Sun-Times today:

Perhaps John O’Malley and people in the archdiocesan victims assistance office aren’t aware of this, but what is described in the letters constitutes sexual abuse. If the article has the facts straight, and the archdiocese received notification that a priest was sharing a bed with a nineteen-year-old and assaulting another teenager with porn and sex talk, and failed to notify the authorities, failed to investigate (which could have led to a suspension from public ministry), then the Archdiocese of Chicago violated the Dallas Charter its archbishop had approved just six months earlier. In December 2002, no one at the archdiocese bothered to ask the father how old the other teens were? Where was the sense of urgency so soon after Dallas? Where is it now?

Comments include this from Bill Mazella:

The sense of urgency is only in coverup. We can rightly call this the “Culture of Coverup.” . . .

And this stunner from Bob Nunz:

that a VOTF rep in Chicago, along with Justice Burke, called for the non-election of Cardinal George as head of the catholic bishos Conference and likewise, Jason Berry as well.

That’s Anne Burke of the Ill. Supreme Court, mentioned in a post below.

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Pilate washed his hands, didn’t he?

Neither Cardinal Francis George nor his point man on sexual abuse, Chancellor Jimmy Lago, would comment for this article.

Why not?

The dad who contacted the archdiocese about McGuire in 2002 said he initially called the cardinal’s office, which referred him to the victims’ ministries. [sic]

Why?

In one letter, the dad says his 19-year-old had to share a bed with the priest.

Another parent’s letter relayed an alarming “pattern of behavior” McGuire developed beginning with a June 1998 trip to India with their son. At the time, the boy was 17.

“He stated that Father [McGuire] was overwhelming him with pornographic pictures and talking to him about sexual matters at every waking moment,” the parent wrote.

Remember the Colleen Dolan comment last July about Fr. McCormack, she being Cardinal George’s spokesperson?

“He has not been accused of rape. Never. There’s a big difference between abuse and assault, which is a more egregious crime.”

That’s the spirit, Colleen.

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