Thursday, June 16, 2005
EMAIL FROM DR. BOND
Dear Friends,
A priest of the Diocese of Scranton, Fr. Albert Liberatore, has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a minor over a three-year period. See the Scranton Times article at http://www.scrantontimes.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14658138&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=415898&rfi=8.
In addition to the criminal charges against Liberatore, to which he has already pleaded guilty, there is a federal civil lawsuit filed by the victim and his family. This civil lawsuit charges former Bishop of Scranton, James Timlin, with failing to protect the victim and having prior knowledge of Liberatore's perverse behavior. Sound familiar?
The Scranton Times has also reported that the Diocese of Scranton has spent $836,652 since 1950 in costs related to claims of clerical sexual abuse. See http://www.scrantontimes.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14678517&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=415898&rfi=8.
We believe the figure is much higher because of secret settlements made with victims prior to the Dallas Charter's forbidding such arrangements. Consider, for example, the case of Fr. Robert Caparelli, a priest of the Diocese of Scranton who was the first priest in the United States diagnosed as being HIV-positive who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing altar boys. Caparelli died of AIDS in the Lackawanna Correctional Facility in December 1994. Bishop Timlin subsequently boasted about how little the Diocese of Scranton had to pay to settle the civil lawsuits in the Caparelli case, but the actual amount paid to the victims was never made public. See our report on Caparelli and Timlin at http://www.saintjustinmartyr.org/news/BishopTimlinOpenLetter4.html.
Whatever the real figure, the total cost of sexual abuse by Scranton priests is sure to rise not only because of the federal lawsuit against Liberatore and Timlin, but also because of our lawsuits against the Society of St. John and the Diocese of Scranton. When the evil fostered and protected during Timlin's reign is finally and fully exposed, the financial and spiritual costs will astound those who have refused to face the truth. The malevolent fruits of Timlin's corruption are already ripe: heterodox and homosexual predator priests, dwindling vocations, school closings, deficits, and a diocese infected with moral rot.
Pax vobiscum,
Dr. Jeffrey M. Bond
