PopeWatch: Bishop Daniel Ryan

Pope Francis can be blamed for many things, but the protection of predator priests and bishops long predates him.  Church Militant is doing an excellent series upon the late Bishop Daniel Ryan.  PopeWatch is very familiar with this case and it gave PopeWatch an early indication that was much was amiss in the Church:

Ryan was installed as the fourth bishop of the diocese of Springfield on Jan. 18, 1984 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. Chicago’s Joseph Cardinal Bernardin told the more than 1,300 in attendance it was a “joyful day” that “signifies a new era” in the diocese.¹⁴ Those turned out to be prophetic words.

Brady first learned of trouble in Springfield in mid-1996, when a 46-year-old priest contacted him to report Bp. Ryan had sexually harassed and abused him. Brady, a pizza restaurant owner who founded RCF to fight heterodoxy and liturgical abuses, first contacted Cardinal Bernardin, the archbishop of Chicago and metropolitan of the Illinois province of the Catholic Church. Bernardin refused to intervene. Cardinal Bernardin’s chief of staff, Sister Mary Brian Costello, wrote to Brady that while the cardinal had “carefully considered” his concerns, he did not feel “it would be appropriate for him to enter into matters not pertaining directly to his archdiocese.” The responsibility, she wrote, “rests with the local bishop.”¹⁵

Brady was flummoxed. A corrupt bishop isn’t going to investigate or sanction himself. Bernardin “had an obligation to pass on to the Holy See any information about situations or occurrences concerning the bishops under his jurisdiction that could be detrimental to the faith,” Brady said. It was the first in a long line of setbacks for RCF. The situation demonstrated the Church hierarchy’s omertá — a code of silence — regarding homosexual abuse committed by bishops and cardinals, he said. It was the first of numerous times when Bernardin protected Bp. Ryan or tipped him off about complaints lodged with Church authorities.

Brady interviewed two other priests who reported that Ryan sexually harassed them. Father John Reeves, 44, told Brady the bishop forcibly kissed him during overnight diocesan trips. At a motel in St. Louis in July 1985, “Bishop Ryan came out of the motel bathroom clad only in his underwear to grab and kiss me on the lips, stating he loved me very much,” Fr. Reeves said. A similar thing happened at a motel in Palatine, Ill., in February 1986. The following morning, Reeves entered the motel sauna. “I found Bp. Ryan with another gentleman in a ‘compromising position,'” Fr. Reeves said.

In the summer of 1991, Fr. Reeves said he reported the abuse to the Rev. Thomas P. Holinga, 43, director of priest personnel for the Diocese of Springfield. “He only laughed at me and told me I was making all of this up,” Fr. Reeves said in a statement to RCF and later in lawsuit testimony. Reeves passed a polygraph test as part of litigation against the diocese of Springfield. Father Reeves eventually left the Catholic Church to become a bishop in the schismatic Catholic Church of the Americas. He was excommunicated for it. Father Holinga did not return messages asking for comment on Fr. Reeves’ assertions.

Another priest, Fr. “R. Doe,” 46, had it worse.¹⁶ If he gave in to Bp. Ryan’s demands for sex, he would be rewarded with a plum parish assignment. If he refused, he could be committed to a psychiatric hospital for “treatment.” Father Doe, just a few years out of the seminary, was invited by Bp. Ryan to live in the cathedral rectory in March 1987. On numerous occasions, he said, Bp. Ryan grabbed him and forcibly kissed him on the lips. One day when Fr. Doe stood on a ladder changing the battery in a smoke detector, the bishop placed his hands on the priest’s buttocks. On other occasions, Bp. Ryan showed up naked at Fr. Doe’s bedside, asking for sexual favors, the report said.

Go here to read the disgusting rest.  There were rumors about Bishop Ryan early in his tenure.  It was readily apparent that he was a left wing loon and then his abuse of priests began to talked about behind the scenes.    Nothing was done about him until the scandal became public, and vigorous efforts made to unmask him by Stephen Brady and his Roman Catholic Faithful organization, who were attacked by members of the clergy for their attempts to bring this before the public.  Pope Francis has continued this policy of protecting clergy predators, but this policy long predated him.