Monday, May 23, 2005
EMAIL FROM DR. BOND
Dear Friends,
The Society of St. John has posted on its web site a "Press Release" and a "Letter to Benefactors" (www.ssjohn.org), both of which provide evidence that madness is not the cause of evil, but rather that evil is the cause of madness. Indeed, the SSJ has now reached a stage that can only be called delusional.
In their press release, the SSJ claims that the sale of their Shohola property "gives evidence to the Society's claim that their project is financially viable." Yes, you read that right. The SSJ is claiming their project is "viable."
Now, let us consider for a moment what the SSJ's project really is. The SSJ raised approximately 5.5 million dollars by telling donors they were building a Catholic city with a school system designed to cover the years from kindergarten through college. In 1999, the SSJ paid 2.9 million dollars for the Shohola property where this development project was to occur, and then, without a single building having been built, the SSJ sold this same property in 2005 for 3 million dollars. This adventure in real estate has now led the SSJ to boast as follows: "Even without the proposed development, the sale of their property has enabled the Society to pay in full the substantial mortgage attached to a large property." In other words, the SSJ's proof that their "project" is still financially viable is the fact that the SSJ bought a property it should have never bought, and then sold it six years later to pay off the mortgage. The press release neglects to mention that the SSJ thus wasted 5.5 million dollars of donors' money, and left in their wake thousands of disillusioned and broken-hearted Catholics, not to mention their victims of sexual abuse. Yet the SSJ claims their project--whatever it is--is still viable.
The press release then states that, along with this "blessing" (of having bought and sold a useless property?), the SSJ has participated in a settlement of a "civil case involving two of its priests." According to the press release, this settlement "has been forced upon the Society because of the extraordinarily expensive legal costs of legitimate defense in these cases and in no way implies confession of guilt on the part of the Society or its members." But why, we must ask, were the legal costs so high? Answer: the extraordinary costs were the direct result of the extraordinary legal efforts required to keep damaging evidence out of the courtroom, especially the psychosexual reports on Carlos Urrutigoity and Eric Ensey. If the SSJ had wished to avoid these costs, if the SSJ had really been eager to have its day in court (as they repeatedly claimed), the SSJ could have easily instructed their attorneys to stop using every possible legal delay, a process that led to over $200,000 in defense costs. Ensey's abuse of the federal bankruptcy court was a particularly shameless maneuver intended to prevent the plaintiffs from obtaining access to his psychosexual report which, Bishop Timlin has acknowledged in a letter, reported that Ensey had a problem with pornography.
The SSJ's "Letter to Benefactors" exhibits a mindset even further deranged. This gem was authored by Fr. Dominic Carey who, back in February 2002, admitted that the SSJ priests shared their bed with boys. (See the affidavit of Diane Toler at http://www.saintjustinmartyr.org/news/TolerAffidavit.html.) Poor Fr. Carey was so brainwashed by Urrutigoity that Fr. Carey did not realize he was supposed to deny what the all the SSJ cult members knew to be true. Fr. Carey has since figured out that lying to those outside of the cult is a charitable act.
Fr. Carey begins his letter to benefactors by assuring them that God does indeed desire the work and mission of the Society of St. John. The proof is that the SSJ has "been given the green light to found a house in South America!" Fr. Carey does not tell the benefactors who has given the SSJ this "green light," but he asks for "offerings" (read: money) as "we now bring the liturgical and faith treasures of Catholic tradition to lands that are fast becoming the promise of the Church." Someone better warn parents in Argentina to keep their boys inside their homes.
Fr. Carey then states that the SSJ's property in Shohola was sold "at a significant profit, proving the value of the great investment you all have being [sic] making possible." Is the SSJ now transforming itself from a telemarketing debt-servicing corporation to a speculative real estate firm? Perhaps, but the important point of all of this, according to Fr. Carey, is that "there are many expenses for a new foundation and the maintenance of our chapel here in Shohola, where we still offer Mass and the sacraments according to the Old Rites of the Church thanks to the permission extended by Bishop Martino." Are we to believe, then, that Bishop Martino has lifted the decree suppressing the SSJ? The diocesan statement about the SSJ, entitled "No Society," does not support Fr. Carey's claim (http://www.dioceseofscranton.org/mainpage/index.htm), but when it comes to bishops and the sex abuse crisis in this country, we are ready to believe just about anything is possible.
Finally, Fr. Carey celebrates the "great joy of seen [sic] the end of useless litigation with regard to a draining civil suit." Fr. Carey reports that the SSJ was "at a loss as to where to find the million dollars necessary to bring our own defense to court." One would have thought the truth would have been sufficient, but for some reason Fr. Carey thinks a million dollars was required. We then learn, however, that the SSJ's decision to settle the sex abuse lawsuit was simply an act of charity on the SSJ's part, for "the civil case was going to prove quite inconclusive and expensive for all the parties concerned." Expensive, perhaps; inconclusive, no.
Noting that the SSJ had to fork out only $55,000, whereas the Diocese coughed up $200,000 and the Fraternity of St. Peter $125,000, Fr. Carey underlines how "little, although unjust" this settlement was. Fr. Carey then concludes with a humdinger: "The Society has always and still does maintain the innocence of the Diocese of Scranton, the Fraternity of St. Peter, St. Gregory's Academy, and its own, the true victims of interested propaganda and false allegations." Yes, folks, the true victims were not those groped and even sodomized by the priests of the SSJ, but the poor priests themselves.
We will keep you posted as we try to determine if there is any truth at all in the SSJ's latest work of fiction. Eventually it will all be sorted out through our lawsuits against the SSJ and the Diocese of Scranton. Suffice it to say there are more extraordinary costs ahead for the SSJ.
Pax vobiscum,
Dr. Jeffrey M. Bond
