Who?

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The word from Joe is that ex-priest and serial molester Don Grecco will be out of jail 23 April 2018.

You may recall on 24 October 2017  Grecco was sentenced to  18 months jail.  He will have served all of about six months when he is released.  Six months.

As I sad elsewhere, what an insult to the victims.   These Canadian predators must chuckle when they get  these”Tut Tut Bab boy”  sentences.

What a lark!  Out in six months.

Do the people on these parole boards have children?

Anyway, Grecco is presumably banned for life from attending public places where those under 16 are likely to be, including public parks, school grounds and community centres.

Who is going to keep an eye on him I wonder?

Will those who decided that it is well worth the risk to grant a  serial child molester an early release protect the children?

Who, I wonder,  decided that it’s worth risking the safety and well-being of children to let a child molester out of jail early?

Who?

*****

Not a good day…

I really am becoming jaded.  I read an article about the bishop of the beleaguered Diocese of Saginaw Michigan who has appointed a retiring judge to handle complaints of clerical sexual abuse and that,  despite the fact that the judge was  retained by the bishop for the task at hand, he will presumably be independent and have “full authority” in all matters of alleged sexual abuse of minors and alarm bells ring.

Here is the article:

13 April 2018:  “Judge to help diocese deal with sex abuse claims” & related articles

Is there not a little something there which reminds we Canadians of the the two scandal-plagued New Brunswick dioceses (Moncton and Bathurst) and the episcopal decision in both to retain retired Supreme Court of Canada Justice Michel Bastarache to  hammer out those “conciliation’ deals with the many victims who were starting to speak out?  True, it’s a little different in that there is no mention in Saginaw that I see as yet of ‘settlements‘ per se, but, my gut feels is that this is probably what this is all about, ie,   get/seduce the victims to contact the judge, then the respected and knowledgeable judge provides  a sympathetic ear and offers of  a settlement which, the victim is assured, will, for their sake (the victims) be kept quiet, and will not require that he/she be dragged through and humiliated in the courts.

Yes, I’m giving way to a bit of sarcasm there.  The thing is that in New Brunswick, barring the names of those clerical sexual predators which were already out in the public domain,  there has not been so much as the whisper of the names of clergy whose sexual misconduct prompted  Justice Bastarache and the respective diocese or archdiocese to hanker out a ‘settlement” with their unfortunate victims.   In other words, the identities of most of the known clerical sexual predators in the Moncton and Bathurst dioceses remain top secret.

Is that where things are going in the Saginaw Diocese?  I don’t know,- dioceses in the USA are much more transparent that those here in Canada,  but it sort of has that feel, does it not?

Note that the judge promised to notify police ‘when necessary,’ but also note that in response to news of this new point of contact  for victims  the local police force issued a statement which reads in part:  “The diocese cannot and should not be used as a clearinghouse for the reporting of crimes by victims. That is the function of law enforcement.”

Amen!!!

And Amen!

Note too that among  the links in one of the articles  to the new  names which have been added to the diocesan website there is that of a “John (Jacl) Hammer.”    Here is what the diocese has posted on it’s website for this former priest predator:

 

Name:                       John (Jack) Hammer

Date of Birth:           March 12, 1946

Date of Ordination: June 23, 1979

lncardinated into Diocese of Saginaw: March 31, 1994

Previous primary assignments

In residence, St. Stephen, Saginaw                                                  Oct 1990-Oct 1991

Associate Pastor, Blessed Sacrament, Midland                              Oct 1991-July 1995

Pastor, Mount St. Joseph, St. Louis and St. Patrick, Irishtown   July 1995-July 1999

Pastor, Mount St. Joseph St. Louis and St. Mary, Alma                July 1999-May 2002

Faculties withdrawn                                                                                 May 2002

Laicized (does not function as a priest)                                              January 20, 2006

This, I think,  is supposed to represent transparency and honesty?

I think not.  While, yes, it’s true that we in Canada can only dream of a bishop who would post the name of any clerical predator on a diocesan website,  the name of the game in the Saginaw Diocese now is to be transparent,( and, of course, on the heels of this transparency, to reach out to the victims via a judge).

So, here’s why I think the diocese has failed in its being transparent.

Note that Hammer, who was ordained in June 1979,  was incardinated in the Saginaw Diocese on 31 March 1994, and that he was in the diocese in some capacity for nearly four years before that.

Where was Hammer from 1979 to 1990?  and what diocese was Hammer incardinated in before he was incardinated into the the Saginaw Diocese?  In other words, where was Hammer incardinated before he became incardinated into the Diocese of Saginaw? He ‘belonged’ to some diocese before he landed “in residence” at St. Stephen’s, or, failing that, he was a member of a religious order.  Why no mention of that?

 

One more thing…

The bishop of the Saginaw Diocese is Joseph Cistone.   Yes indeed, that is one and the same Father Joseph R. Cistone who, in 1994, aided in/was present during the destruction of documents identifying 35 clerical sexual predators in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia

According to a memo  written by a Monsignor James Molloy on 22 March 1994 regarding the shredding of a secret list of 35 priests:

“On 3-22-94 at 10:45 AM I shredded, in the presence of Reverend Joseph R. Cistone, four copies of these lists from the secret archives….The action was taken on the basis of a directive I received from Cardinal Bevilacqua at the Issues meeting of 3-15-94 ….”

 

Enough for now,

Sylvia

This entry was posted in Accused or charged, Bishops, Canada, Circling the wagons, Clerical sexual predators, Scandal and tagged , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

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