Boston Late 2018 Recap

Belated Happy New Year!  There were a few hot news items in late December, and with Advent and Christmas being a particularly busy time of year, we just didn’t get to write about them.  Still, since a number of readers sent these items our way, we wanted to catch-up on the backlog and give them a little bit of airtime and share BCI’s take on them.

Former St. Johns Seminary Rector, Msgr. Moroney is out

It comes as no surprise that he is the first “head to fall” in view of homosexual sexual harassment problems at the seminary.  The range of headlines is interesting:

• Boston Globe: Brighton rector in misconduct allegations at St. John’s Seminary to go to Worcester
• ChurchMilitant: Boston Seminary Rector Forced Out Amid Homosexual Abuse Probe
• Boston Pilot: Msgr. Moroney steps down as St. John’s rector

In this post from September, (Is Cardinal O’Malley Whitewashing the Gay Scandal Investigation at SJS?) BCI shared that sources thought Msgr. Moroney would be out.  That’s now happened.  We also shared that also possibly out the door would be the Vice Rector as well as a faculty member disliked by some of the auxiliary bishops.  We expect the investigation to wrap-up soon, and more changes to follow.

We’re also sent a note to the investigation committee and suggested the following:

We hope that in your final report, you find a way of mentioning the ongoing issue of open homosexuality in the Boston presbyterate sending a contradictory message to seminarians and seminary faculty and leadership. How can Cardinal O’Malley expect to have a chaste seminary when he allows an openly homosexual ordained presbyterate?

Cardinal O’Malley Reports Cardinal Dolan to Papal Nuncio for Abuse Cover-up

On December 29, ChurchMilitant reported that Cardinal ‘Malley had reported a case of predatory homosexual sex abuse by a New York priest and the ensuing cover-up by New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan to the papal nuncio to the United States, Abp. Christophe Pierre.

In a letter dated Dec. 21, O’Malley alerted the nuncio to the case of Fr. Donald Timone, a priest of the archdiocese of New York, whom Dolan allowed to remain in active ministry — even calling him “remarkably tender and holy” in 2013 — after he knew of the credible allegations of sex abuse. 

The story about Timone broke in a New York Times article  which detailed that Dolan compensated two of Timone’s victims and allowed him to remain in active ministry, even as recently as this week. Cardinal O’Malley’s acknowledged in his letter to the nuncio that the story had just hit the mainstream media, saying, “today the New York Times has published an extensive report concerning the allegations against Rev. Timone.”

This initially appeared as a situation of one cardinal turning on another cardinal, and indeed to some extent, that is what’s happening; however, Cardinal O’Malley had no choice but to report this.  He told Catholic News Agency that he received a letter informing him about this in early November and he said he was too busy with travel to do anything about it until, coincidentally, the NY Times article hit, when he suddenly found himself with enough time to forward the letter to the U.S. papal nuncio.  Had O’Malley not reported this to the nuncio, he would have found himself with the exact same criticism he faced over the Cardinal McCarrick scandal–he received a letter about a grave situation and never did anything about it.  

The NY times has a well-established reputation now for “fake news.”  If the allegations of a cover-up of abuse are true, then it should have been reported to the nuncio.   But that said, Cardinal O’Malley and his staff are covering-up the Walter Cuenin abuse scandal, so Cardinal O’Malley is not exactly “lily-white” himself in this department.