> As one put it succinctly to Politico: “These people have ****ing memory loss.”
> Those feelings are likely to be echoed by Catholics more broadly
Yeah... my daughter is trying to teach me to say "hecking" instead (a reasonable minced oath) but otherwise it checks out.
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/2peter/3?9 I am pondering the patience of Our Lord. I think that on the whole we could spend more time thinking about the four last things (death, judgment for what we have done and also for what we have failed to do (perhaps indeed *primarily* for what we have failed to do, per Matthew 25's conversation with astonished goats), heaven, and hell.) In any case I will pray that we all get in some last-minute repentance in these remaining hours of Advent, especially whoever is in most need of conversion (I'll just put myself at the top of the list and let the BVM fill in the rest).
Choice swear words, used sparingly but when warranted have the full power they should have. We should all be wary of those who make efforts to discipline their tongues feel it necessary to swear.
I, too, found that expletive's appearance on The Pillar jarring. I fully realize that it was a direct quote from somebody talking to Politico, but I think sticking in the asterisks as Bridget did above would have gotten the point across equally well, without stooping down to today's "journalistic standards." Call me old-fashioned.
Indeed...perhaps he has been trying to be transparent all this time but all of his would-be press releases and disclosures were accidentally sent to his "sister" instead of the general public. Perhaps he just has "general public" and "sister" mixed up in his phone contacts. Seems likely enough....right?
I wonder why no enterprising reporter ever located Tobin’s sister and asked to check her Twitter feed….wonder if she would lie for her brother. I will answer my own question, because allegations of misconduct against left leaning clerics are always stonewalled, because they know that no one will ever tenaciously fact check them
With all due respect, if you value personal privacy so little, are non-“left leaning”, and such a “tenacious” fact-checker, why not ask Mr. Musk yourself about the recipient’s account?
This is totally damning for +Tobin. A prominent high-ranking cleric in a leadership position at one of America's most prominent Catholic universities, gets busted in a sex abuse and cover-up scandal like this, all these years on? How can +Tobin still be in his leadership role?
I was saying this back during the McCarrick saga: it's an injustice that +Tobin and +Cupich were never put in the hotseat and interrogated about who/what/where/when they knew regarding abuse and cover-ups, considering they are two of the most powerful clerics in the US and very close personal confidants of/allies to the now-disgraced McCarrick. As long as those two never got put under the microscope, the Church was basically saying: "we're not proactive on rooting this out: you can still get away with it as you can cover up your personal evidence decently."
You mean to tell me that "nighty-night baby" +Tobin, the buddy-buddy to McCarrick, the powerful and influential prelate with connections throughout the US heirarchy and Rome, and current leader of the Newark archdiocese, had no clue whatsoever, not the faintest whiff in the air, of abuse and cover-up efforts by the other high-ranking cleric he knew, in charge of a prominent American Catholic university in his jurisdiction? Really, this only reconfirms for me my theory that +Tobin is actively part of abuse and cover-ups.
I don't like to pile on, but I seem to remember +McElroy being on that list of then-bishops now-cardinals that were "in-the-know" with respect to McCarrick and his circle particularly.
If you don’t like to “pile on”, and the editors/moderators are fine with singling out +Tobin, then please include Wuerl (who is still flying first class to the Vatican fairly often with his $2mm slush fund), Dolan, Farrell, et. al.
That is a brilliant choice of words worthy of the finest word weasel… optimal for who exactly? Certainly not the victims, and not the Church either because weaselry and hypocrisy eventually get found out. Optimal for him in the short term apparently.
It's likely that the archbishop knew about the seminary dismissals and allegations when they occurred in 2012 and 2014. Seton Hall is a diocesan university and the archbishop appoints the board of trustees who oversee the university. Msgr. Reilly and members of the board of regents who were aware may have thought it sufficient that the archbishop was informed, and may have thought greater responsibility lay with the archbishop for failing to communicate the information to the rest of the university governance.
That doesn't excuse the failure to report, and it is bizarre that the board & Cardinal Tobin appointed him as university president after requiring him to step down as dean of the seminary.
Since + Tobin seems to be the lightning rod for all of McCarrick’s disordered everything in Newark, you mention the interval 2012-2014. Since +Myers is was alive into 2020, why did no one talk to him instead of ready/fire/aim at “non-Conservative” Joe +Tobin?
John Joseph Myers † (24 Jul 2001 Appointed - 7 Nov 2016 Retired)
It's not clear who you think is firing at Cardinal Tobin for the lack of reporting in 2012 and 2014. People are criticizing Cardinal Tobin for his 2024 appointment of Msgr. Reilly when the report he had commissioned indicated reporting lapses on the part of Msgr. Reilly. As I said in my comment, it's likely that Archbishop Myers was aware of the allegations and dismissals in 2012 and 2014, and if he was, he bears ultimate responsibility for the lack of reporting to the university. It's possible that is a reason why Cardinal Tobin and the board thought it was ok to appoint Msgr. Reilly as president, although it is strange that it comes so quickly after Msgr. Reilly stepped down as dean of the seminary.
The only way this sex abuse stuff is ever going to change is if the laity stop funding the perpetrators and their facilitators. Students who can should find a different university to attend. Just kick the dirt off your feet as you leave.
The question is how we interpret this against the attempted coverup of statutory rape that we were just made aware of 3 1/2 hours to the southwest. Will we on both sides hear the defense of "Oh well, everyone is doing it. That is just the way things are handled."? Or will it provide momentum for the necessary complete "spring cleaning" of even the darkest corners of our society?
I hope for the latter, but I would to bet on the former. If I were the type that places bets.
Thank you Pillar staff, for all you do. I send this for a prayer for your well being, for your families and for more subscribers "the worker deserves his due" and you are all very hard workers whom I have always felt love the Church. May the Peace of Christ be with you in this Christmas Season.
It sounds like all the cases of sexual abuse involved males as victims. If they had involved females, would the result have been different? I suspect so. Elephant in the room again 😔
In this case, “inappropriately handled sexual abuse allegations” means something like ‘failed to file the proper form with the correct office in the sister institution by the proper deadline, as dictated by flowchart step 47.g.2 in section 8.4.6.8.n.1.b of the institutional bylaws’.
Seriously?? What are we doing here?
Journalists have a grace responsibility to accurately communicate the severity of misdeeds. To use the phrase “inappropriately handled sexual abuse allegations” is to inappropriately handle that grave responsibility.
Summary terminology must accurately convey the severity of an offense, not be a catchall that lumps the least oversights with the vilest premeditated offenses.
Examples and analogies must be helpful in conveying severity and scope, not be dramatically disproportionate and of wholly different kinds.
The Pillar is much, much better than this reporting.
I too was shocked by the appearance of a most profane word in The Pillar. Not news. Sickening.
My son was a victim of clerical sexual abuse for three years. He had two periods of hospitalization for suicidal ideation, and is now away from the Church. Of course this is extremely serious and vitally important investigative work by The Pillar, for the sake of reform of the US Church. But to succumb to the quoting of filthy language does you no good in this battle. It pleases the enemy.
The church will never reform. We’ve know about this behavior since the news broke in 2002—not the behavior itself, just the public knowledge of it—and nothing has changed at all, despite many, many promises.
As a lawyer who worked in this field, I completely support your excellent investigative reporting on the ongoing Newark problem/scandal. I have the highest regard for your work. But I was shocked and sickened to see that you chose to use the quote which contains a most profane word. At Christmas (or, for that matter, at any time), really?
Seems a bit rich that some are straining at the gnat of one - ONE - row of asterisks in a quote from someone who is clearly on the side of the angels, albeit unawares.
So sad that we have room at Christmas to be shocked by a single word as we swallow the camel of yet more evidence of widespread and bone-deep corruption in some upper echelons of the Church in the US.
Really?
Pillar, keep doing exactly what you're doing. Having no pearls to clutch, I can handle the occasional rough-diamond quote from someone who is aghast at what they're seeing in the Church - as aghast as I am.
Wen wIll te Church be free of these nests of so&omite vipers? These kinds of serpents always lie, always don cloaks of pietism and just keep on doing it. Faithful should stop contributing until the offenders and enablers are removed.
Was Tobin too busy texting "Nighty night" to his Italian soap opera star "roommate" to read up on Reilly, or is the Lavendar mafia just protecting another of its own.
> As one put it succinctly to Politico: “These people have ****ing memory loss.”
> Those feelings are likely to be echoed by Catholics more broadly
Yeah... my daughter is trying to teach me to say "hecking" instead (a reasonable minced oath) but otherwise it checks out.
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/2peter/3?9 I am pondering the patience of Our Lord. I think that on the whole we could spend more time thinking about the four last things (death, judgment for what we have done and also for what we have failed to do (perhaps indeed *primarily* for what we have failed to do, per Matthew 25's conversation with astonished goats), heaven, and hell.) In any case I will pray that we all get in some last-minute repentance in these remaining hours of Advent, especially whoever is in most need of conversion (I'll just put myself at the top of the list and let the BVM fill in the rest).
Choice swear words, used sparingly but when warranted have the full power they should have. We should all be wary of those who make efforts to discipline their tongues feel it necessary to swear.
I, too, found that expletive's appearance on The Pillar jarring. I fully realize that it was a direct quote from somebody talking to Politico, but I think sticking in the asterisks as Bridget did above would have gotten the point across equally well, without stooping down to today's "journalistic standards." Call me old-fashioned.
Be fair, Pillar! Poor Cardinal Tobin has more than enough on his plate trying to address his tweets to the correct recipient.
https://catholicherald.co.uk/diocese-says-cardinal-nighty-night-baby-tweet-was-meant-for-sister/
Indeed...perhaps he has been trying to be transparent all this time but all of his would-be press releases and disclosures were accidentally sent to his "sister" instead of the general public. Perhaps he just has "general public" and "sister" mixed up in his phone contacts. Seems likely enough....right?
I wonder why no enterprising reporter ever located Tobin’s sister and asked to check her Twitter feed….wonder if she would lie for her brother. I will answer my own question, because allegations of misconduct against left leaning clerics are always stonewalled, because they know that no one will ever tenaciously fact check them
With all due respect, if you value personal privacy so little, are non-“left leaning”, and such a “tenacious” fact-checker, why not ask Mr. Musk yourself about the recipient’s account?
This is totally damning for +Tobin. A prominent high-ranking cleric in a leadership position at one of America's most prominent Catholic universities, gets busted in a sex abuse and cover-up scandal like this, all these years on? How can +Tobin still be in his leadership role?
I was saying this back during the McCarrick saga: it's an injustice that +Tobin and +Cupich were never put in the hotseat and interrogated about who/what/where/when they knew regarding abuse and cover-ups, considering they are two of the most powerful clerics in the US and very close personal confidants of/allies to the now-disgraced McCarrick. As long as those two never got put under the microscope, the Church was basically saying: "we're not proactive on rooting this out: you can still get away with it as you can cover up your personal evidence decently."
You mean to tell me that "nighty-night baby" +Tobin, the buddy-buddy to McCarrick, the powerful and influential prelate with connections throughout the US heirarchy and Rome, and current leader of the Newark archdiocese, had no clue whatsoever, not the faintest whiff in the air, of abuse and cover-up efforts by the other high-ranking cleric he knew, in charge of a prominent American Catholic university in his jurisdiction? Really, this only reconfirms for me my theory that +Tobin is actively part of abuse and cover-ups.
I don't like to pile on, but I seem to remember +McElroy being on that list of then-bishops now-cardinals that were "in-the-know" with respect to McCarrick and his circle particularly.
If you don’t like to “pile on”, and the editors/moderators are fine with singling out +Tobin, then please include Wuerl (who is still flying first class to the Vatican fairly often with his $2mm slush fund), Dolan, Farrell, et. al.
“Optimal Transperancy”
That is a brilliant choice of words worthy of the finest word weasel… optimal for who exactly? Certainly not the victims, and not the Church either because weaselry and hypocrisy eventually get found out. Optimal for him in the short term apparently.
It's likely that the archbishop knew about the seminary dismissals and allegations when they occurred in 2012 and 2014. Seton Hall is a diocesan university and the archbishop appoints the board of trustees who oversee the university. Msgr. Reilly and members of the board of regents who were aware may have thought it sufficient that the archbishop was informed, and may have thought greater responsibility lay with the archbishop for failing to communicate the information to the rest of the university governance.
That doesn't excuse the failure to report, and it is bizarre that the board & Cardinal Tobin appointed him as university president after requiring him to step down as dean of the seminary.
Since + Tobin seems to be the lightning rod for all of McCarrick’s disordered everything in Newark, you mention the interval 2012-2014. Since +Myers is was alive into 2020, why did no one talk to him instead of ready/fire/aim at “non-Conservative” Joe +Tobin?
John Joseph Myers † (24 Jul 2001 Appointed - 7 Nov 2016 Retired)
https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dnewa.html
It's not clear who you think is firing at Cardinal Tobin for the lack of reporting in 2012 and 2014. People are criticizing Cardinal Tobin for his 2024 appointment of Msgr. Reilly when the report he had commissioned indicated reporting lapses on the part of Msgr. Reilly. As I said in my comment, it's likely that Archbishop Myers was aware of the allegations and dismissals in 2012 and 2014, and if he was, he bears ultimate responsibility for the lack of reporting to the university. It's possible that is a reason why Cardinal Tobin and the board thought it was ok to appoint Msgr. Reilly as president, although it is strange that it comes so quickly after Msgr. Reilly stepped down as dean of the seminary.
Myer was never mentioned by name
The only way this sex abuse stuff is ever going to change is if the laity stop funding the perpetrators and their facilitators. Students who can should find a different university to attend. Just kick the dirt off your feet as you leave.
The question is how we interpret this against the attempted coverup of statutory rape that we were just made aware of 3 1/2 hours to the southwest. Will we on both sides hear the defense of "Oh well, everyone is doing it. That is just the way things are handled."? Or will it provide momentum for the necessary complete "spring cleaning" of even the darkest corners of our society?
I hope for the latter, but I would to bet on the former. If I were the type that places bets.
Thank you Pillar staff, for all you do. I send this for a prayer for your well being, for your families and for more subscribers "the worker deserves his due" and you are all very hard workers whom I have always felt love the Church. May the Peace of Christ be with you in this Christmas Season.
It sounds like all the cases of sexual abuse involved males as victims. If they had involved females, would the result have been different? I suspect so. Elephant in the room again 😔
In this case, “inappropriately handled sexual abuse allegations” means something like ‘failed to file the proper form with the correct office in the sister institution by the proper deadline, as dictated by flowchart step 47.g.2 in section 8.4.6.8.n.1.b of the institutional bylaws’.
Seriously?? What are we doing here?
Journalists have a grace responsibility to accurately communicate the severity of misdeeds. To use the phrase “inappropriately handled sexual abuse allegations” is to inappropriately handle that grave responsibility.
Summary terminology must accurately convey the severity of an offense, not be a catchall that lumps the least oversights with the vilest premeditated offenses.
Examples and analogies must be helpful in conveying severity and scope, not be dramatically disproportionate and of wholly different kinds.
The Pillar is much, much better than this reporting.
Please read the fallout on the Fr. Carlos Martins incident involving students.
I too was shocked by the appearance of a most profane word in The Pillar. Not news. Sickening.
My son was a victim of clerical sexual abuse for three years. He had two periods of hospitalization for suicidal ideation, and is now away from the Church. Of course this is extremely serious and vitally important investigative work by The Pillar, for the sake of reform of the US Church. But to succumb to the quoting of filthy language does you no good in this battle. It pleases the enemy.
The church will never reform. We’ve know about this behavior since the news broke in 2002—not the behavior itself, just the public knowledge of it—and nothing has changed at all, despite many, many promises.
As a lawyer who worked in this field, I completely support your excellent investigative reporting on the ongoing Newark problem/scandal. I have the highest regard for your work. But I was shocked and sickened to see that you chose to use the quote which contains a most profane word. At Christmas (or, for that matter, at any time), really?
Seems a bit rich that some are straining at the gnat of one - ONE - row of asterisks in a quote from someone who is clearly on the side of the angels, albeit unawares.
So sad that we have room at Christmas to be shocked by a single word as we swallow the camel of yet more evidence of widespread and bone-deep corruption in some upper echelons of the Church in the US.
Really?
Pillar, keep doing exactly what you're doing. Having no pearls to clutch, I can handle the occasional rough-diamond quote from someone who is aghast at what they're seeing in the Church - as aghast as I am.
Wen wIll te Church be free of these nests of so&omite vipers? These kinds of serpents always lie, always don cloaks of pietism and just keep on doing it. Faithful should stop contributing until the offenders and enablers are removed.
Meanwhile in New Orleans, another cover-up is sentenced.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/18/new-orleans-catholic-priest-sentenced-lawrence-hecker
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/27/lawrence-hecker-priest-child-rapist-dies
He died the day after Christmas with full retirement benefits from the archdiocese of New Orleans.
Was Tobin too busy texting "Nighty night" to his Italian soap opera star "roommate" to read up on Reilly, or is the Lavendar mafia just protecting another of its own.