Render Unto Rome

by Jason Berry

  92. James Gollin, Worldly Goods (New York, 1971), pp. 439, 441.

  93. John Cornwell, Hitler’s Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII (New York, 1999), p. 190.

  94. See George Seldes, The Catholic Crisis (New York, 1945); and D’Agostino, Rome in America.

  95. Pollard, Money and the Rise of the Modern Papacy, p. 186; see also Gollin, Worldly Goods, pp. 449–54.

  96. Duffy, Saints and Sinners, pp. 343–45.

  97. Rabbi David G. Dalin, The Myth of Hitler’s Pope (New York, 2005), pp. 55–56; Rychlak, Hitler, the War, and the Pope, p. 317.

  98. Cornwell, Hitler’s Pope, p. 295.

  99. Ronald Rychlak in Hitler, the War, and the Pope and Rabbi David Dalin in The Myth of Hitler’s Pope have been relentless critics of Cornwell’s thesis.

  100. Eric O. Hansen, The Catholic Church in World Politics (Princeton, NJ, 1987), p. 81.

  CHAPTER 3: SEEDS OF REVOLT

  1. Jack Thomas, “Scandal Darkens a Bright Career,” Boston Globe, April 14, 2002.

  2. John Allen, Conclave (New York, 2004), p. 29.

  3. Bruce Teague, interview with the author.

  4. Boston Globe Investigative Staff, Betrayal: The Crisis of the Catholic Church (New York, 2002), p. 146.

  5. Andrea Estes, “Vatican Reverses Kennedy Ruling,” Boston Globe, June 21, 2007.

  6. Steve Marantz, “Law Raps Ex-priest Coverage,” Boston Globe, May 24, 1992.

  7. Channing Thieme, interview with and e-mails to the author. She has since married and now goes by Channing Penna.

  8. Art Austin, e-mail to the author, March 18, 2002.

  9. Jason Berry and Gerald Renner, Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Power in the Priesthood of John Paul II (New York, 2004), p. 89.

  10. Robert Blair Kaiser, A Church in Search of Itself: Benedict XVI and the Battle for the Future (New York, 2006), pp. 68–69.

  11. Allen, Conclave, p. 163.

  12. John L. Allen Jr., “Vatican Defends Church’s Handling of Sexual Abuse Allegations,” National Catholic Reporter, March 29, 2002. At the press conference, Cardinal Castrillón cited a figure of 3 percent of priests with “tendencies” toward abuse and only 0.3 percent as actual pedophiles. His data were drawn from a book by Philip Jenkins, Pedophiles and Priests (New York, 1996), which in turn had cited a 1992 study of Chicago priests, meaning that the cardinal’s figures were a decade old. A Report on the Crisis in the Catholic Church in the United States, by Robert S. Bennett et al., prepared by the National Review Board for the Protection of Children and Young People (Washington, DC: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2004), cited data that put the figure at 4 percent of American priests.

  13. On Castrillón correspondence, see Jason Berry, “Vatican Cardinal Bucked U.S. Bishop on Abuse,” National Catholic Reporter, April 22, 2010; Patty Machelor, “Moreno Struggled to Defrock 2 Priests,” Arizona Daily Star, April 1, 2010. See also Berry and Renner, Vows of Silence, 234–35; Michael Rezendes, “Ariz. Abuse Case Names Bishops, 2 Priests,” Boston Globe, August 20, 2002. Castrillón correspondence is posted on www.natcath.org.

  14. Phone interview with Lynne Cadigan, May 13, 2010.

  15. Berry and Renner, Vows of Silence, pp. 65–66.

  16. John Allen, “Catholic Vatican Summit Produces Flawed Document,” National Catholic Reporter, May 10, 2002.

  17. Berry and Renner, Vows of Silence, pp. 65–66.

  18. Nicholas P. Cafardi, “The Scandal of Secrecy,” Commonweal, August 13, 2010.

  19. Laurie Goodstein and David M. Halbfinger, “Church Office Failed to Act on Abuse Scandal,” New York Times, July 1, 2010.

  20. The papal document was a motu proprio, meaning “by his own hand” or “impulse,” a distinction signaling direct action by the pope. In this case the language obscures reality. The available record on Pope John Paul II, including biographies by Jonathan Kwitny and George Weigel; his myopic support of the long-accused Father Marcial Maciel; his passive handling of Cardinal Hans Hermann Groër, who resigned as archbishop of Vienna in 1995 under accusations by former seminarians, suggest the opposite: the pope was locked in denial and viewed predatory priests as a marginal issue. A moral fundamentalist, Ratzinger abhorred the crisis—though he had no idea of its explosive impact to come in Boston—and insisted on taking canonical responsibility for such cases in the Vatican, thereby assisting the pope. In the New York Times article cited in note 18, journalists Goodstein and Halbfinger report that Ratzinger had greater authority that he should have used all along. They make a strong case.

  21. John Thavis, “CDF Official Details Response to Sex Abuse,” Catholic News Service, National Catholic Reporter, March 16, 2010. The official, Monsignor Charles Scicluna, said that only about 10 percent involved prepubescent children, while 60 percent involved priests who preyed on adolescent males.

  22. John Thavis, “Doctrinal Congregation Takes Control of Priestly Pedophilia Cases,” Catholic News Service, December 5, 2001.

  23. David Gibson, The Coming Catholic Church (San Francisco, 2003), p. 22.

  24. David France, Our Fathers (New York, 2004), p. 423.

  25. Ibid., p. 430.

  26. Jack Sullivan and Eric Convey, “Land Rich: Archdiocese Owns Millions in Unused Property,” Boston Herald, August 27, 2002. The plaintiff attorneys had made Law, not the archdiocese, a defendant. Legally, the cardinal was a corporation sole, which meant he had power over all church assets. Massachusetts law had a $20,000 limit on damages that a charitable organization could pay. But if officers of a group drew salaries, they could be sued personally. Garabedian had therefore sued Law and other hierarchs, though the funds would come from the church and its liability insurers.

  27. Michael Paulson, “After Abuse Scandals Many Priests Tread Warily,” Boston Globe, January 13, 2002.

  28. Michael Rezendes and Thomas Farragher, “Archdiocese Mortgages Law’s Home to Pay Debt,” Boston Globe, September 28, 2002.

  29. For King quotation, see Stewart Burns, To the Mountaintop: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Mission to Save America (San Francisco, 2004), p. 27. Bowers’s thoughts are from an unpublished essay used by permission.

  30. Michael Paulson, “58 Priests Send a Letter Urging Cardinal to Resign,” Boston Globe, December 10, 2002.

  31. Michael Rezendes and Walter V. Robinson, “Lennon Picks Sites for Sale, Eyes Court Test in Abuse Cases,” Boston Globe, December 23, 2002.

  32. Walter V. Robinson and Matt Carroll, “Lennon Is Viewed as Skilled Manager,” Boston Globe, December 14, 2002.

  33. Kevin Cullen, “Legends on the Waterfront,” Boston Globe, July 25, 2004. Billy Bolger was the pol; Kevin White the mayor.

  34. Brian Wallace, telephone interview with and e-mail to the author, August 24, 2009; Megan Tench, “4 Accuse Bishop of Breaking Promise,” Boston Globe, June 28, 2003.

  35. Megan Tench and Anand Vaishnav, “Catholic School in South Boston to Close,” Boston Globe, June 11, 2003.

  36. V. Val Mulcahy, “The Case for a Single Parish” (unpublished), March 12, 2004, p. 3.

  37. Ibid.

  38. Michael Paulson, “65 Parishes to Be Closed,” Boston Globe, May 26, 2004.

  39. Michael Paulson, “Pope Names Law to Ceremonial Position in Rome,” Boston Globe, May 28, 2004.

  40. “Pastors Meet with O’Malley About Church Closings,” WCVB Boston, www.thebostonchannel.com, May 27, 2004.

  41. Michael Paulson, “Church Offers Guidance on Closings,” Boston Globe, May 28, 2004.

  CHAPTER 4: THE VATICAN, THE VIGILS, AND THE REAL ESTATE

  1. See www.bishopaccountability.org/diocese for coverage of the Fall River, MA, scandal. See also Sean Gonsalves, “Diocese Details Abuse,” Cape Cod Times, February 21, 2004.

  2. Doyle collaborated with attorney F. Ray Mouton and the late Reverend Michael Peterson, a psychiatrist and founder of St. Luke Institute, on a ninety-three-page report in 1985 on the pedophilia crisis that Peterson sent to the bishops. See Jason Berry, Lead Us Not into Temptation (New York, 1992),
pp. 98–103.

  3. Betty Clermont, The Neo-Catholics: Implementing Christian Nationalism in America (Atlanta, 2009), p. 21.

  4. Martin Lee, “Their Will Be Done,” Mother Jones, July/August 1983.

  5. Mary McLachlin, “Turbulent Year for Diocese, Church,” Palm Beach Post, March 9, 2003.

  6. Dan Moffett, “Bishop Symons Resigns,” Palm Beach Post, June 3, 1998. Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg served as an interim administrator after Symons resigned, before O’Connell arrived. In 2002 the St. Petersburg diocese paid slightly more than $100,000 to the diocesan spokesman, Bill Urbanski, who accused Lynch of making sexual advances toward him. Lynch denied the allegations. For the out-of-court payment, Urbanski agreed not to press a civil lawsuit. The diocese called it a severance payment. See Chuck Murphy and Waveney Ann Moore, “Church Paid $100,000 to Bishop Lynch’s Aide,” St. Petersburg Times, March 23, 2002.

  7. Jeff Brumley, “Bishop Apologizes for Abuses,” Press Journal (Palm Beach, FL), June 14, 2003.

  8. Walter V. Robinson and Stephen Kurkjian, “Boston Archdiocese Weighs Bankruptcy Filing,” Boston Globe, December 1, 2002.

  9. The figures cited are drawn from the Boston archdiocese financial statements posted on its website and from coverage in the Boston Globe.

  10. Nicholas Cafardi, telephone interview with the author, August 24, 2009. See also Nicholas P. Cafardi, “The Availability of Parish Properties for Diocesan Debts,” Seton Hall Legislative Journal 29, no. 2(2005), pp. 361–73.

  11. Elena Curti, “Study in Scarlet,” The Tablet, May 8, 2010.

  12. John L. Allen Jr., “Vatican Disses One of Its Own on Clergy Sex Abuse,” National Catholic Reporter, April 15, 2010.

  13. Victor L. Simpson, “Vatican Reports Deficit for Third Year,” Associated Press, July 7, 2004.

  14. John L. Allen Jr., All the Pope’s Men: The Inside Story of How the Vatican Really Works (New York, 2004), p. 30; and John Allen, Conclave (New York, 2004), p. 173.

  15. Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes (New York, 2007), p. 309.

  16. CIA, Report of CIA Chilean Task Force Activities, 15 September to 3 November 1970, Chile and the United States, Declassified Documents relating to the Military Coup, 1970–1976, November 18, 1970, www.gwu.edu.

  17. Weiner, Legacy of Ashes, p. 315.

  18. Cathy Lisa Schneider, Shantytown Protest in Pinochet’s Chile (Philadelphia, 1995), p. 101.

  19. Pamela Constable and Arturo Valenzuela, A Nation of Enemies: Chile Under Pinochet (New York, 1991), p. 241. Hugh O’Shaughnessy, “The Cardinal Who Stood Up to Pinochet,” The Tablet, February 27, 1999.

  20. Penny Lernoux, People of God (New York, 1989), p. 149.

  21. John L. Allen Jr., Cardinal Ratzinger: The Vatican Enforcer of the Faith (New York, 2000). See chap. 4.

  22. David Gibson, The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World (San Francisco, 2006), p. 195.

  23. Paul Collins, The Modern Inquisition: Seven Prominent Catholics and Their Struggles with the Vatican (New York, 2002), p. 27.

  24. John L. Allen Jr., “These Paths Lead to Rome,” National Catholic Reporter, June 2, 2000.

  25. www.remember-chile.org.uk/declarations/romero.htm. The website was established in 1998 when Pinochet, while in England, was placed under house arrest in response to a warrant from a Spanish judge for him to stand trial for human rights crimes. Cardinal Sodano was widely criticized for his appeal to the British government to release Pinochet; he was acting on a request from Chile’s democratically elected government, which wanted its courts to be the venue for any legal recourse against Pinochet, who had negotiated a senator-for-life status and immunity from prosecution during Chile’s transition to democracy.

  26. George Weigel, Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II (New York, 1999), p. 531.

  27. Jonathan Kwitny, Man of the Century: The Life and Times of Pope John Paul II (New York: 1997), p. 563.

  28. Carl Bernstein and Marco Politi, His Holiness: John Paul II and the Hidden History of Our Time (New York, 1996), p. 465.

  29. Kwitny, Man of the Century, p. 564.

  30. Clermont, The Neo-Catholics, p. 77.

  31. Achille Silvestrini, “Introduction,” p. xx, in Agostino Casaroli, The Martyrdom of Patience: The Holy See and the Communist Countries (1963–89), trans. Fr. Marco Bagnarol IMC (Toronto, 2007); Jason Berry, “Change Challenges the Church,” Chicago Tribune Perspective, April 10, 2005.

  32. Agostino Bono, “Cardinal-designate Sodano Has 3 Decades of Diplomatic Experience,” Catholic News Service, January 1991.

  33. Giovanni Avena, interview with the author, Rome, July 15, 2009.

  34. Father Kenneth J. Doyle, “Vatican to Pay $250 Million in Ambrosiano Case, Says Cardinal Krol,” Catholic News Service, March 5, 1984; Sandro Magister, “The Pope’s Banker Speaks: ‘Here’s How I Saved the IOR,’ ” L’Espresso, June 18, 2004, www.chiesa.espressonline.it.

  35. Kwitny, Man of the Century, p. 654.

  36. Weigel, Witness to Hope, p. 749.

  37. Magister, “The Pope’s Banker Speaks.” Sodano’s quote is from Alan Cowell, “Challenge to the Faithful,” New York Times Magazine, December 27, 1992.

  38. Copies of the document in Latin and translation provided by Peter Borré.

  39. Michael Paulson, “Church Offers Guidance on Closings,” Boston Globe, May 28, 2004.

  40. Stephen Kurkjian, “Parishes’ Proceeds to Benefit Diocese,” Boston Globe, February 2, 2004.

  41. Rev. Stephen S. Josoma and Rev. John A. Dooher, pastors, Letter on Reconfiguration Process from Saint Mary Parish and Saint Susanna Parish to Monsignor Cornelius V. McRae, VF, March 8, 2004.

  42. Rev. Bill Williams, pastor, Letters to St. Mary’s Parish Members, April 17, 2007, and November 18, 2007.

  43. Marco R. della Cava, “Santa Fe Archdiocese Learned Lessons That Could Help Others,” USA Today, March 26, 2002; Demetria Martinez, “Diocese Sells Retreat in Sex Abuse Bailout,” National Catholic Reporter, September 30, 1994.

  44. Deposition of Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan, 134th Judicial District Court, Dallas County, Texas, case no. 93-05258-G, John Doe I et al. v. Reverend Rudolph Kos et al., April 14, 1994, p. 63.

  45. Brooks Egerton of the Dallas Morning News chronicled the Kos saga, followed by an extensive series in 2002 on international dimensions of the clergy abuse crisis. See also Jason Berry and Gerald Renner, Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II (New York, 2004), pp. 235–41.

  46. Joe Feuerherd, “Diocesan Bankruptcies Raise Church Ownership Issues,” National Catholic Reporter, September 9, 2005.

  47. Samuel J. Gerdano, “Diocesan Bankruptcies: A Feast for Lawyers,” The Edge, December 12, 2004, www.catholicexchange.com.

  48. Affidavit of Nicholas P. Cafardi, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of Washington, case no. 04-08822, The Catholic Bishop of Spokane Debtor, Committee of Tort Litigants v. The Catholic Bishop of Spokane, et al., May 27, 2005, p. 16.

  49. “Bankruptcy: The Gamble That Backfired,” National Catholic Reporter, September 9, 2005.

  50. Christine Tolfree, “VOTF Mass in Response to Church Closings,” The Pilot (Boston archdiocesan newspaper), August 23, 2004.

  51. State Representative James M. Murphy, “An Argument Against Closing a Church in Weymouth,” letters, Boston Globe, May 13, 2004.

  52. Denise Leavoie, “Parishioners Refuse to Leave Church Scheduled to Close,” Associated Press, August 31, 2004.

  53. Bella English, “Weymouth Parishioners Stage Sit-in to Protest Closing,” Boston Globe, August 31, 2004.

  54. Mary Williams Walsh, “Parishioners in Boston Plan Suit over Priests’ Pensions,” New York Times, May 21, 2005.

  55. Michael Paulson, “O’Malley Seeks Review of Closings,” Boston Globe, October 8, 2004.

  56. Kate Zezima, “Parish Closings Inspire Prayer Vigils and Sit-ins,” New York Times, November 6, 2004.

  57. Statement of Archbishop Seán O’Malley rega
rding Reconfiguration, BostonCatholic.org, November 13, 2004.

  58. Jonathan Finer, “Boston Torn by Parish Closings,” Washington Post, November 17, 2004.

  CHAPTER 5: ITALIAN INTERVENTIONS

  1. “Top Cardinal Says Media Overplay Sex Scandal,” New York Times, October 11, 2003.

  2. John L. Allen Jr., All the Pope’s Men: The Inside Story of How the Vatican Really Works (New York, 2004), p. 327.

  3. Alex Kingsbury, “A Rift over Iraq Between President and Pope,” U.S. News & World Report, April 16, 2008.

  4. John L. Allen Jr., “Vatican Asks Condoleezza Rice to Help Stop a Sex Abuse Lawsuit,” National Catholic Reporter, March 3, 2005.

  5. Source for “Court of Cassation,” from Pasquale Follieri’s biography on the company website, is U.S. Attorney’s Office, Manhattan. On Pasquale’s legal problems, see John R. Emshwiller, “Joint Venture to Purchase Catholic Properties Sours,” Wall Street Journal, June 15, 2007.

  6. Government Sentencing Memorandum, Deposition of FBI Agent Theodore Cacioppi, Southern District of New York, case no. 08 CR00850-001 (JKG), United States v. Raffaello Follieri, June 23, 2008. “FOLLIERI donated hundreds of thousands of dollars of money of the Principal Investor to the Vatican without disclosing those donations … [and] concealed that these payments were donations by falsely representing to the Principal Investor that the money was being used for ‘engineering reports,’ ” p. 8. The payment to Monsignor Giovanni Carrù is referenced in the letter from Castrillón to Follieri.

  7. Michael Shnayerson, “The Follieri Charade,” Vanity Fair, October 2008.

  8. Joe Feuerherd, “Catholic Real Estate Bonanza,” National Catholic Reporter, March 3, 2006.

  9. Joe Feuerherd, telephone interview with the author, December 7, 2009.

  10. Feuerherd, “Catholic Real Estate Bonanza.”

  11. Ibid.

  12. Melanie Bonvicino, interviews with the author, January 2010.

  13. Shnayerson, “The Follieri Charade.” On the car and driver, see the Bonvicino interviews.

  14. The letter, in Italian with English translation, became an exhibit in the federal prosecution in the case file, United States v. Raffaello Follieri.