Edit: there was a dramatic confrontation at the aforementioned canon law presentation by Father Dan Ward OSB, shilling for the New Mercy of Pope Francis, this past Sunday. They're trying to catch a boost from the Bergoglio Effect. Two of Ward's alleged victims confronted him during the question and answer section.
One of the especially interesting features of this confrontation was that the name of Josh Guimond, who's been reported missing from St. John's since November 10, 2002, was mentioned by one of the first of Dan Ward's alleged victims. Josh Guimond had been studying abuse at Collegeville prior to disappearing, and was a captain of Dan Ward's Mock Trial team.
St. John's Abbey has long been source of heresy and liturgical abuse since even the 20s when Liturgical Reformer, Father Virgil Michel OSB, was celebrating illicit Masses to as part of the so-called Liturgical Movement, among whose stated aims was active participation in the liturgy, social justice and inclusion into the Mystical Body of Christ. Virgil's activist, deforming and dissident work was carried on by Vatican II Peritus, Father Godfrey Dieckmann OSB and his successors at Orate Fratres, now Worship Magazine, like the credibly accused predator and heretical Father Dunstan Moorse OSB who is now its editor.
Many still unfortunately do not see a connection between the credible pederastic and criminal sexual conduct of these individuals and their heretical beliefs, but we'd submit to you that as in cases like this outside of the Catholic Church, (Which aren't regarded with the same venom and moral outrage in the media, see Roman Polanksi and David Bowie, for example, in the entertainment media, psychhology, education and so on) there is a powerful link between beliefs and the abuse of power.
What are Bishop Barron's beliefs?
We've copied and pasted the entire article for clarity, and for preservation purposes, which includes the transcript of the question and answer session:
[Behind the Pine Curtain] On Sunday, January 24, 2016, Father Dan Ward gave a presentation (via Skype) to an audience of 50-75 people on the campus of Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota.
[Behind the Pine Curtain] On Sunday, January 24, 2016, Father Dan Ward gave a presentation (via Skype) to an audience of 50-75 people on the campus of Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota.
One of Father Ward’s alleged victims attended. Father Ward admitted to the audience that he met with the alleged victim in the vice-president’s office [at the College St. Benedict] years ago, but he didn’t want to have a discussion about something that “was settled.”
Note: In October of 2012, Saint John’s Abbey confirmed that Father Dan Ward was under investigation for sexual misconduct. The public has yet to learn the results of that investigation, though Father Ward resigned from as Executive Director of the RCRI in May of 2013. Father Ward taught at St. John’s Prep School and St. John’s University.
Father Ward spoke for approximately 40 minutes.
After the presentation, Father Ward took questions.
The first person to the microphone asked if Father Ward had ever crossed student-teacher boundary lines with any students from St. John’s Prep School or St. John’s University, or with any novice monks.
Father Ward’s answer: “No”
She also asked about the Mock Trial program and Joshua Guimond.
Father Dan Ward responded immediately that he was in the Bahamas when Guimond was at St. John’s.
While Abbot Klassen allowed Father Ward to answer questions about allegations of sexual misconduct (of which there are many) Abbot Klassen took the microphone after Joshua Guimond’s name come up.
The third person to the microphone was one of Father Dan Ward’s alleged victims. Her allegations are available in a redacted notarized pdf document on this web site.
Father Ward had earlier stated that he had never crossed any boundaries, so it came as a shock to some in the room that Father Ward remembered his alleged victim’s name but recalled for the audience a meeting with his alleged victim in the vice-president’s office at St. Ben’s where the matted was “settled.” Father Ward did, however, dispute that he ever said, “I ask for forgiveness” from the woman during the meeting.
She offered Father Ward an opportunity to say he was sorry. He did not accept her offer.
A transcript of the exchanges is available below.
******** TRANSCRIBED ********
0:00 Audio/Video Stamp
Father Dan Ward: So I’d like to leave you with these two quotes: One from Ryan Stevenson, again, “Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done,” and we must apply that to each person however we judge them as we shouldn’t judge them. And Pope Francis says, “Mercy is the force that reawakens us to new life and instills in us the courage to look to the future with hope.” Mercy, acceptance, and forgiveness of persons, in church law, in church ministry, is about giving hope for people on the journey of life.”
So thank you.
0:44
[Applause]
0:58
John Klassen: Dan, thank you so much for a wonderful, thought-provoking presentation that I think helps all of us understand the shift we’re seeing in Pope Francis. So, we’re going to open this directly up into questions here and observations and requests for clarification. So, please, the floor is open uh if you’d come up and use the mic, that would be very, very helpful.
1:41
*** Female Questioner #1 ***
Female Q1: Thank you for taking my questions…
Ward: Can you just speak up a little closer to the mic?
Female Q1: Sure. Sorry about that.
Klassen: Testing, One, Two
Female Q1: Can you please explain further about the canon and civil laws regarding student-teacher boundaries and have you ever crossed these lines with any Prep students, university students or novice monks.
Ward: I didn’t hear your… it was…
Female Q1: Please explain further between the canon and civil laws regarding student-teacher boundaries and have you ever crossed these lines with any Prep, university students or novice monks.
Ward: Uh, the last part of the question is no, uh, I don’t know the difference with, uh, civil and canon law because, um, both of them, there’s a difference between boundary issues, and uh, criminal, what you want to call, criminal issues. Boundary issues are dealing with social/psychological relationships and criminal, criminal law is dealing with specific acts but I don’t understand all of the question.
3:10
Female Q1: OK, the like the student teacher boundaries of inappropriate relationships… I do have three affidavits of victims from you and that have said that you were sexually inappropriate with them in the past and I would like to know if you have a response for that.
Ward: Since I don’t know, since I don’t know what they are, but I have not done that… so.
Female Q1: OK. Sir. Do you teach political science and have you even been involved with mock trial?
Ward: Who?
Female Q1: Mock Trial
Ward: Never heard of the person.
Female Q1: No, Mock trial, is where lawyers who are studying to be lawyers argue and have…
Ward: Oh, Mock trial
Female Q1: Mock trial
Ward: OK
Female Q1: So you have been involved with mock trial?
Ward: Yeah, Joe Wierschem and I did mock trial, mock trial.
Female Q1: OK. Because Josh Guimond went missing and he was co-captain of the mock trial and he did..
Ward: I wasn’t at, I wasn’t at St. John’s when he was at…
Female Q1: You weren’t at St. John’s?
Ward: No
[Abbot Klassen heard interrupting: I don’t think this is the issue… time… ]
Ward: I was in the Bahamas
4:37
Klassen: Other Questions, please?
*** Female Questioner #2 ***
[ 4:37 – 10:00 Not transcribed ]
10:00 Technical discussion regarding microphones
10:22
*** Female Questioner #3 ***
Female Q3: [Inaudible] Dan
Ward: Hi
Female Q3: I don’t know if you remember me. I was one of your students in Constitutional Law. I just wanted to ask a question. You said “In doubt, you must always favor the person who is being accused.” Why do you feel that is necessary? I mean, if they are accused, isn’t there some sort of validity behind the accusation? Otherwise, they’d be innocent.
Ward: Well, it’s both the principal of canon law and its an ancient principal of roman law [Latin Phrase] and we do it in civil law too because in civil law and in criminal law it has to be beyond a reasonable doubt before someone can be convicted. And so the same principal holds in canon law that it has to be beyond a reasonable doubt so that accusations may or may not be true but the whole purpose of the legal system is through that legal system, to find out the truth. To give you an example, this is not civil and criminal law, but I was teaching a course in the seminary on marriage annulments, I, the students, they were all deacons, they would come and I would hear a case with them. In one case the person listened to the woman who was giving it and then the man wanted to give testimony and so I said to the seminarian, “You go down to Minneapolis to get the testimony.” And he came back and he said, “that woman is lying.” And I said, “Well the man said this…” and I said, “Well, that’s… you’re going to find out that in marriage, it’s usually somewhere in the middle. But you end up with a system of law is designed not what is canon law, civil law, european law, continental law, common law, is that no body is guilty of something until they, it’s been proven. And in the United States system we use “beyond a reasonable doubt.” In the church we use the phrase “moral certitude” so that’s how the system is developed. Accusations aren’t truth. Accusations are accusations.
12:57
Female Q3: Truthfully… And I agree with you that accusations can be damaging and that accusations can be out there forever. What I want to know specifically is, why did you apologize to me in 1985? [Note: The meeting actually took place in 1990.]
Ward: I don’t remember this.
Female Q3: Ok. Well, my accusations have been made. My accusations are out there. I know you are aware of them and I know that the last time you and I saw each other you asked me to forgive you. And, if you are willing to ask me to forgive you one more time, I’m willing to consider it because I have been carrying around a lot of pain, for a lot of years, and I’m not going to say the accusations, you and I know.
Ward: Well, actually.
Female Q3: You said we are all broken and we are all human. So, do you want my forgiveness?
Klassen: Sorry
Ward: Well, actually. Is this XXXXXXX, I didn’t hear your name.
Female Q3: Yeah
Klassen: This is…
Ward: Yeah, Well, if you remember, I did not say, “I ask for forgiveness.” I said, if there’s some way, because, you said you weren’t part of my groupies, I’m sorry. But I am not here to have a discussion about something that we, that was settled before in the vice-president’s office.
Female Q3: It wasn’t settled. I left and threw up after you tried to touch me.
Ward: I did not. I never did.
Female Q3: OK. Well, Dan, This was my one opportunity to ask you to say your sorry.
Female Q3: At this point, I’m done. Thank you.
Bravo to these women for calling out Fr. Dan Ward (though it seems many of his victims were male!)--how ironic that he is not only a civil lawyer but a canon lawyer and in fact teaches law to college students. Recently I came across a 2011 paper by Cardinal Burke to Seton Hall seminarians in which he (a canon lawyer and in fact Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura at the time) states that while the Church had a discipline to deal w/child sex abusers it wasn’t followed in the post-conciliar church because “it was not known, and, in fact, was presumed not to exist” due to the “hermeneutic of discontinuity” interpretation of the Council:
ReplyDelete“Father Coughlin shows, in a particular way, how the failure of knowledge and application of the canon law, which was indeed still in force, contributed significantly to the scandal of the sexual abuse of minors by the clergy in our nation. Indeed, it is often asserted that the just-mentioned scandal was caused by the absence of a proper discipline in the Church to deal justly with such abhorrent factispecies. In the typical approach of the hermeneutic of discontinuity, it is assumed that the Church lacked the proper canonical discipline with which to investigate such crimes and sanction them. The truth of the matter is that the Church had dealt with such crimes in the past, as should come as a surprise to no one, and that she had in place a carefully articulated process by which to investigate accusations, with full respect for the rights of all parties involved, including the protection of potential victims during the time of the investigation; to reach a just decision regarding their truth, and to apply the appropriate sanction. The discipline in place was not followed because it was not known and, in fact, was presumed not to exist.” [Burke also accuses pre-conciliar church of “legalism” (i.e. Pharisees) –hope all the neo-trads take note – see the Coughlin quote directly above this excerpt from p. 10]
https://www.shu.edu/theology/upload/2011-03-30-New-Evangelization-and-Canon-Law-Gerety-Lecture-by-Cardinal-Burke.pdf
Unfortunately why canon law is not being followed now (and wasn’t followed during Benedict either) is because these so-called “priests” all lie to themselves, to each other and for each other and come up with a new lie every day of the week to protect their club. The money the faithful have given to the Church for alms and the conversion of sinners is being used to pervert both Canon and Civil law to slander, defame and prosecute the innocent and protect the guilty:
Latest priest victim here:
http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Irish-Catholic-priest-frozen-out-Florida-Church-informing-pedofile-clergy.html
Same as Planned Parenthood – the murderers indict those who expose them (talk about crowns of thorns):
http://restore-dc-catholicism.blogspot.com/2016/01/corrupt-texas-attornies-indict-david.html
Well, Barron is a defender of Bernardin: “After the accusation against Cardinal Bernardin proved (what proof-Bernardin was dropped from the case during discovery and then case was settled out of court) to be phony”http://www.courageouspriest.com/father-barron-great-time-priest
ReplyDeletehttp://eponymousflower.blogspot.com/2011/03/father-corapi-and-cardinal-bernardin.html
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1994-03-01/news/9403010228_1_steven-cook-cardinal-joseph-bernardin-charges
Here’s the file on Bernardin: http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/abbott/060818
http://www.awrsipe.com/brom/bishop_brom.htm
This was Cook’s accusation: “Cook insists today that it was during his last two years at Elder (highschool) — when he was visiting St. Gregory College Seminary on weekends to learn about the priesthood — that Bernardin and another priest abused him. The other priest, the Rev. Ellis Harsham, "plied" him with "alcohol, marijuana and pornography" and had sex with him on numerous occasions, Cook claims in his lawsuit, and once took him to Bernardin's home, where Bernardin allegedly abused him.” (almost verbatim of all the stories of the victims: abused by those who are to be trusted w/drugs, porn, and then rape)
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news3/1993_11_21_McNamee_StevenCooks_Ellis_Harsham_12.htm
These are Barron’s self-claimed mentors/colleagues: Greeley, Quinn & Rosica:
I first met Fr. Andrew Greeley on a cold January day in Chicago in 1988. We were brought together by our mutual friend, Msgr. Bill Quinn, who had been a mentor to Greeley many years before and who had begun to play the same role in my life…”
http://www.wordonfire.org/resources/article/fr-andrew-greeley-priest/464/
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2004-11-24/news/0411240168_1_catholic-bishops-national-catholic-reporter-social-justice
http://saltandlighttv.org/blog/fr-thomas-rosica/a-tribute-and-thanks-to-a-colleague-friend-and-evangelizer
http://catholicchampion.blogspot.com/2011/04/fr-barron-and-death-penalty-refutation.html
Greeley's latest potboiler novel, features a promiscuous priest with connections to an underground Satanist movement. The fictional priest is the subject of a lawsuit filed against the Archdiocese of Chicago. Greeley says he wrote the novel in 1991 and 1992, before the archdiocese and Greeley's boss, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, became embroiled in a now-famous lawsuit. Steven Cook, 34, sued Bernardin last November, claiming Bernardin and another priest sexually assaulted him when he was a teen-ager. A trial is scheduled for May 9. Greeley says he believes the claims against Bernardin are "pretty crazy. ... It's dangerous when a man's reputation can be attacked that way." … Greeley, who often refers to God as "she," defends the sexuality in his novels, saying that sex is a sacrament that unites people with each other and their creator.” (not dangerous when God’s reputation can be attacked though…)
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1994-02-26/lifestyle/9402241100_1_rev-andrew-greeley-sexual-abuse-archdiocese
That Barron (hell is empty/constant speaker at REC) has gone to LA home of Fairy Grand Maphony “chief celebrant” at Bernardin’s funeral should tell everyone all they need to know: 'that God has created each person for eternal life and that Jesus in death and Resurrection has broken the chains of sin and death,'' as Roger Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles, whom Cardinal Bernardin had asked to be the chief celebrant of the Mass, said at its outset.
http://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/21/us/chicago-joined-by-an-array-of-dignitaries-bids-farewell-to-cardinal-bernardin.html.
Don't hold back. Tell us more.
ReplyDeleteOh, how snarky and how gay, Sean! Did you learn such splendid "wit" in a very rowdy gay bar or in one of Collegeville's confessionals---if there is a difference. Maricusa
ReplyDeleteIs that the best you can come up with Barnum?
Delete