Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Planning a Gay Cruise to Thailand? Call Father Mike

Father Michael J. McCarthy like to sleep naked with teenage boys who stayed over his beach house at the Jersey Shore. He also ran a travel business on the side, planning gay cruises to places like Thailand.

Prosecutors on Tuesday used documents from the secret archive files introduced by Detective Joe Walsh to tell Father McCarthy's story to the jury in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia sex abuse case.  

Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington suggested that the church had turned a blind eye to Father McCarthy's transgressions with teenage boys, as long as scandal could be avoided by transferring the priest to another parish. In September 1992, the cardinal promoted Father McCarthy to pastor of Epiphany of Our Lord Church in Norristown, despite two complaints of sex abuse in his file.

It was the priest's business venture that got him into trouble, the prosecutor said, especially after the cardinal found out that Father McCarthy was taking business away from another local travel agent who had just donated $25,000 to the archdiocese for Catholic Life 2000.

The first complaint in the archdiocese's secret archive files was made against Father McCarthy back in 1986. A mother reported to the archdiocese that in biology class at Cardinal O'Hara High, Father McCarthy had touched her son in an improper way, by running his hands down the boy's back and buttocks. 

The next victim, a married father of two daughters, called the archdiocese on Nov. 27, 1991, to say that Father McCarthy had abused him sexually from 1974 to 1976, when the boy was a student at Cardinal O'Hara High School in Springfield, and the priest was his biology teacher. McCarthy was on the faculty at Cardinal O'Hara from 1965 until 1989.

 Father O'Hara invited the boy to stay at his beach house in Margate. The place had two bedrooms, but one belonged to his late mother, the priest told the victim, so that nobody else was allowed to sleep there. So the boy had to share the priest's bedroom, and his bed.

The bar at Father McCarthy's beach house stocked with at least 50 bottles of liquor, so the priest could serve lots of alcohol to his teenage house guests. He slept naked, and insisted the boys do the same.

The victim said that one night, after several drinks, Father McCarthy began stroking the boy's genitals, to the point of orgasm. The priest told the victim he did this with other boys that he brought to the beach house. Then the priest "masturbated himself," the victim said. The victim gave the names of four other victims to Msgr. James E. Molloy, assistant vicar for administration, and his assistant, Msgr. William J. Lynn.

Msgr. Lynn typed up his notes on Jan. 23, 1992, and had the victim sign it. In the margin, Msgr. Molloy admonished Msgr. Lynn for being too forthcoming. "Unnecessary statement," Molloy wrote. "Never admit to victim that there have been other cases."

On Feb. 17, 1992, Father McCarthy denied the victim's accusation, writing, "To the best of my recollection, the incident alleged ... never took place." A handwritten note on the priest's declaration, presumably from one of the monsignors, described the priest's denial as "very guarded" and "suspicious."

At the time, Father McCarthy was parochial administrator at St. Kevin in Springfield, but the priest wanted to be promoted to pastor.

But first, the cardinal's men had to decide what to do about the victim's charges. On July 14, 1992, Msgr. Lynn wrote a "confidential memorandum about his meeting with Father McCarthy and Msgr. Molloy. The purpose of the meeting, Lynn wrote, was to "convey Cardinal Bevilacqua's directions to Father McCarthy concerning the pastorship of St. Kevin Parish."

"Cardinal Bevilacqua has decided it is in Father McCarthy's best interest not to be appointed pastor of St. Kevin Parish," Lynn wrote. "The reason for this is the possibility that if appointed pastor of St. Kevin Parish, he could be the subject of great publicity and tarnished reputation should the complainant go public with his story."

"Monsignor Molloy stated that there is the possibility of Father McCarthy being appointed pastor at another parish after an interval of time has passed," Msgr. Lynn wrote. "This parish would be distant from St. Kevin Parish so that the profile can be as low as possible and not attract attention from the complainant. Monsignor Molloy stated that the Archbishop was not implying doubt about Father McCarthy's ability to be a pastor."

In September 1992, Bevilacqua appointed Father McCarthy as pastor of Epiphany. Within two weeks of his appointment, Father Michael O'Malley, a fellow priest at Epiphany complained to Msgr. Lynn about Father McCarthy's open discussions about his visits to gay bars, and his constant sexual jokes and innuendos. Father O'Malley also told Msgr. Lynn that Father McCarthy kept a bag of gay pornographic tapes in his closet at the rectory. He also wasn't an easy guy to live with. Father McCarthy was described by his fellow priests as "a man full of rage."

At the time, the archdiocese was running a big fundraiser, Catholic Life 2000. On April 13, 1993, Cardinal Bevilacqua received a letter from a local travel agent, Lily Giuffrida, who said that her husband had just donated $25,000 to Catholic Life 2000. That had to get the cardinal's attention.

Giufrida explained how she and her husband ran a travel agency that used to do a lot of business with the travel club at Epiphany of Our Lord. Her travel agency also had a policy of providing free trips for priests and nuns. 

But after Father McCarthy took over Epiphany, Giuffrida learned that the priest was himself a travel agent, and that he booked tours through a rival travel agency. Giuffrida told the cardinal that she was upset because she and her husband "donate to Churches who now become our competitors."

The secret archive files show that the cardinal took this complaint far more seriously than the previous complaints about Father McCarthy.

On April 20, 1993, according to the minutes of an "issues meeting," the cardinal "requested that a high priority be placed on procuring all the facts related to" Lily Giuffrida's charges. Two days later, Msgr. Lynn began an investigation.

Lynn visited the rectory when Father McCarthy was on vacation and found 13 gay porno videotapes in Father McCarthy's closet. He also found  a copy of "A Guide to the Gay Northeast," and a gay travel guide to the hot spots of Thailand.

Msgr. confronted Father McCarthy on May 24, 1993, and informed him that moonlighting as a travel agent was a violation of canon law. Later that day, Cardinal Bevilacqua met with Father McCarthy at the cardinal's residence. In the secret archive files, the cardinal wrote, "It had to be very obvious from my interview and the interview with Msgr. Lynn that implications of the material found were that Father McCarthy was homosexual."

Two days later, Father McCarthy resigned as pastor of Epiphany and was placed on a health leave. The priest was shipped off to St. Luke Institute in Suitland, MD., where he was a patient from August 1993 until June 1994. The priest did not want to go to St. Luke's. Prior to his hospitalization there, Father McCarthy sent a newspaper story to Msgr. Lynn. In the article, the priest had underlined a passage where it was stated that St. Luke's used "chemical castration drugs" in therapy.

At St. Luke's, Father McCarthy was diagnosed as having a condition known as "homosexual ephebophilia," an attraction to post-pubescent boys. In the secret archive files, the therapists who treated the priest cited Father McCarthy's "sexual acting out behaviors" with eight high school students at his summer home.

On July 25, 1994, Cardinal Bevilacqua placed Father McCarthy on administrative leave, and limited his priestly faculties to celebrating private Mass for his own benefit.

Upon his release from St. Luke's halfway house in 1994, Father McCarthy got a job as a cashier on the graveyard shift at Merv Griffin's Resorts Casino in Atlantic City. But he still dreamed about being a priest.

In 1998, Father McCarthy wrote Msgr. Lynn, asking to be appointed as pastor to St. Kevin's parish. Lynn invited Father McCarthy to stop by his office and talk about it. In the meeting, Father McCarthy defended his conduct by saying he had "always acted out with age appropriateness" by having anonymous homosexual encounters with men in book stores or parks. He also challenged the accuracy of his diagnosis at St. Luke's.

The secret archive files show that Msgr. Lynn went through the motions of checking back with the therapists at St. Luke's, who said they had got it right the first time.

Then the archdiocese received another complaint about Father McCarthy. Two Irish immigrants wrote the archdiocese saying that Father McCarthy had let them live in a cottage on the grounds at St. Kevin's for five years, while he had a homosexual affair with one of the immigrants. The men said the archdiocese owed them $60,000.

 Msgr. Lynn told Father McCarthy to seek voluntary retirement, but he did not retire until October 2003.

On cross-examination, Jeff Lindy, a lawyer for Msgr. Lynn, suggested to Detective Walsh, as he has previously, that Cardinal Bevilacqua was the puppet-master at the archdiocese, and that Lynn was just doing his bidding.

"He was the man at the top controlling the archdiocese," Lindy said of the late cardinal.

"He was the man at the top," Walsh replied.

"He had the final say," Walsh told Lindy during another point in the cross, but the detective cited other documents in the secret files that stated that the cardinal would "follow the recommendations of Msgr. Lynn."

Lindy pointed out that it was the monsignor who shipped Father McCarthy off to St. Luke's for evaluation, even though the priest had expressed concerns about "chemical castration drugs."

"Father McCarthy stayed at St. Luke's for a year or more, that place that he didn't want to go?"Lindy asked.

"That is correct," Detective Walsh replied. Lindy then tried to assert that it was also the monsignor who basically took Father McCarthy out of active ministry in 1993, by shipping him out to St. Luke's, and then recommending that the priest be put on administrative leave.

But Detective Walsh responded that Father McCarthy was still able to function as a priest periodically over the years at family weddings and confirmations.

"He is a minister, he just doesn't have an assignment," Walsh said.

22 comments

  1. I wish federal prosecutors would appear at Archdiocese offices around the country with warrants to search for and seize all documents from "secret archives" in a coordinated effort in cities nationwide. Imagine what they would find, unless the bishops and monsignors have already shredded everything.

    How can Catholic bishops continue to have ANY influence or power in local communities and politics after this decades long crime spree?

    How can people keep going to this church after so many lives have been destroyed by these greedy false representations of God.... Really, Catholics, next time you feel you have to go to that church and that church only to learn Scripture, look around you at all the other denominations where there is oversight, where parishioners have a voice.

    The Gospel exists in plenty of other places besides Catholic pulpits, in fact a neighborhood Bible study is probably more like the original Christians worshiped than is your Sunday Catholic Mass.

    Next time you must go into a Catholic Church instead of another church, think of the hundred thousand wounded persons struggling through life in the USA right now because these priests got to us as children.

    Think about US!!!!

    (And I've been working on my anger issues... )

    City of Angels Blog is at http://cityofangels12.blogspot.com by the way.

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    1. Just one problem Kay. This is THE Church; it isn't the Jesus Admiration Society. The gospels are clear. Christ is the vine and we are the branches. Unless we eat His body and drink His blood we cannot have life within us. There is no where else to turn...no matter how we feel about how close another denomination or bible study is to original Christian worship.

      You can belong to the Winston Churchill society and leave easily, continuing an independent admiration of Mr. Churchill. The Church is the representation of the body of Christ on earth, however poorly/falsely the clergy represents God. Leaving is what St Francis deSales would call spiritual suicide. So, Kay, when WE leave, THEY win.

      Now before someone accuses me of being a pedophile lover, let me say I'm as disgusted as everyone else is by this. I'm not a pew sheep (to invoke a pejorative popular in this forum). My pastor knows exactly what I'll do with my money when Abp Chaput starts his PR/legal campaign to fight SOL reform.

      You see, what you're advocating is to play into B16's plan. He wants a smaller more docile church.

      I see how BP Morlino is playing the game in Madison WI. I fully expect to be placed under interdict some day...not for dissenting from doctrine, but rather because I'm willing to be vocally and visibly in disagreement with the way the Bishops run things.

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    2. Just one problem, MackerelSnapper - this isn't God's church, and God expects you to know that.

      2000 years a go, Jesus Christ started a church that then fragmented into many different churches. The Catholic church is

      - the richest
      - the most dishonest
      - the most child sex abusing (BY FAR)
      - most abusive of power
      - most vicious to victims
      - most power hungry
      - most structured for "false idols"

      so it clearly isn't God's church, and God expects you to know that. If you don't, they you will spend your eternity where your leaders will - where God will put child rapists, pedophile protectors, liars, bullies who fought the victims, idol worshippers, greedy "false idols".

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    3. What God expects me to know is that the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

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    4. MackerSnapper: Haven't you heard? There have been massive layoffs at Gates of Hell, Ltd., lately because the Catholic Church is doing such a great job destroying Herself from within. Now, due to the international, Priest Pedophilia Scandal, minions of demons are turned loose on the unemployment market.
      What did Jesus teach? He told us that the Kingdom of Heaven was WITHIN. This is the only kingdom that the Gates of Hell can't come against! We are the "tabernacles of the Holy Spirit." His presence abides in us and not necessarily a manmade institution. The Gates of Hell are not prevailing against the Body of Christ. They are prevailing against the Catholic Church, but as evidenced by the rape, molestation and sodomy committed against Priests of the Roman Catholic Church against helpless, innocent children, it should be highly evident to anyone with any degree of spiritual perception that these acts are against children and teens satanic, in nature!

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    5. Krol, Bevilacqua, Rigali are all criminals. They covered up crimes and put youth in danger. Why? To protect the business (church). I feel sorry for the hardworking priests, brothers and nuns who never molested a child but spent their lives in the service of others.

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  2. Actually the Eucharist and therefore the Mass was how the early Christians worshipped, as shown by accusations that Christians were cannibals -eating flesh and drinking blood. You don't get those accusations if you're just sitting around studying scripture.

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  3. Replies
    1. Kay you can read about how things were in the writings of St Justin the Martyr.

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    2. You can read about how the Catholic church dealt with known child rapists in 1994, and if someone didn't save a shredded document with a list of 35 known pedophile priests, history would have been written differently.

      Catholics lie. That's one of the commandments they practice but preach silently, and they've been lying forever. They lied 20 years ago, and they've been lying for 2000 years before that.

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    3. This is an awfully broad indictment. I'm a Catholic. I don't lie.

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    4. Replying to Neilallen76: Neil: Many of the clerics in the Church practice, "The Art of Mental Reservation." It is also known in common terms as "The Art of Lying." The Church has made this provision in Canon Law, that one does not need to tell the truth if it would BRING SCANDAL to the Holy Roman Catholic Church! How convenient!

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    5. MacarelSnapper,

      You do lie, but since you're a Catholic, you can convince yourself you didn't if it makes you sound better.

      Just to pick one example of your lying, you said above, "Now before someone accuses me of being a pedophile lover, let me say I'm as disgusted as everyone else is by this."

      First of all, not everyone is disgusted. Catholic bishops and priests are find with it as long as no one gets caught, and have been for decades and probably centuries.

      More importantly, tens of thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of victims are more disgusted, and are actively fighting against the church or for the victims, neither of which you are doing.

      But again, it makes you feel better to lie and say you are as disgusted as everyone else, so do it. THen go to confession Be Catholic.

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  4. Did the leader wear silken robes?

    I bet early Christians held lots of conversations, and there was no priest leading a Eucharist ceremony. But we will never know for sure, all we have are stories told by the same guys who horded all that gold and let pedophile priests rape children 2 thousand years later.

    I trust my neighborhood Bible study, much more, thank you.

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    1. Its amazing that Catholics can look at the filthy riches of the pope and his cardinals (while 15,000 people starve to death every day), and his despicable acts towards children, and think they can tell God they thought these were the right guys to follow.

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    2. It's not me telling God that these are the right guys; it's God who told me. To expand on me previous post, Jesus says, "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it."

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    3. Kay: I agree with you about local, neighborhood Bible studies, as being a place where it is safer to trust those praising God, next to you and your children. In the good old days, centuries ago, Ireland used to have a beautiful tradition called "Mass Rocks." A community of believers without an edifice called," a church," would assemble out in the open and celebrate the Eucharist. I don't know if it was sometimes done without priests or only with them, but imagine the glory of being outside, in God's infinite Cathedral, looking up to the heavens and praising Him with like-minded believers, filled with His Holy Spirit! Maybe we should take our neighborhood Bible studies out in the open, up to the mountains and out on the plains, where we can draw in people, who don't want to be restricted by the structures of the Church. Just an idea!

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    4. MackerelSnapper,

      Jesus said that about a church 2000 years ago, and the Catholic church fragmented away from that church. The gates of hell won't prevail against normal Christian churches, but it will prevail against this church that is inhabited by wolves in sheep's clothing.

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  5. I'm just saying, for me bk of My Experience:

    Each time you walk in that church, you are contributing to the perpetuation of these coverups and crimes against children. By continuing to believe their words, you are slapping a hundred thousand crime victims in the face.

    So many people are so mesmerized by the lies that they HAVE to keep going in there. That's why the bishops are able to get away with the crimes. Many DA's feel the same way.

    I'm not debating religion, I'm telling you a FACT. It is a slap in my face when you continue to believe in that church, especially when you say you have to bk it's "the One Church" which is another thing bishops made up.

    So frustrating when in trying to get justice for real crimes committed on you, nasty crimes, instead you are faced with religious zealots...

    Go in peace...

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    1. This piece by James Martin articulates my perspective better than I can do it.

      http://www.americamagazine.org/blog/entry.cfm?entry_id=5091

      We can't let the situation change our faith. We should use our faith to change the situation.

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    2. Mackerel, as to your quote about Peter being the rock, Jesus spoke in parables and because of that also probably used puns. Peter is recorded to have been overly ambitious, self centered, gutless, a betrayer, and wedded to his own idea of what Jesus wanted. He was also jealous of Mary Magdalene which comes out far more in other first century Gospels. Given the history of the Church, Peter most certainly represents the type of men who have been historically prevalent in the clergy. Today is no different.

      I take great hope in the fact what Jesus really meant, is the Peter's of the Church can not destroy it. They will be overcome. Jesus didn't guarantee the hierarchy, he guaranteed the survival of the Church. The hierarchy as we now know it, has no such guarantee. Nor do they deserve any such guarantee and no matter how much they try to confuse us 'little simple people' the are not the Church.

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