28 March 2014
In recent weeks, officials of the Diocese of Scranton were notified that the Reverend Carlos Urrutigoity is exercising priestly ministry and was recently named the Vicar General of the Diocese of Ciudad del Este, Paraguay.
From 1998 to 2002, Father Urrutigoity served within the territory of the Diocese of Scranton as a member of the Society of Saint John, a Public Association of the Faithful in the Diocese of Scranton in 1998 erected by then Bishop James C. Timlin. The Society was subsequently suppressed in November 2004 by then Bishop Joseph Martino.
Following accusations of misconduct against two members of the Society in 2002, Father Urrutigioty was suspended from ministry. Despite the consistent expression of grave reservations about this cleric’s suitability for priestly ministry by Bishop Martino, Father Urrutigoity was incardinated into the Diocese of Ciudad del Este, Paraguay in 2008.
Considering the position of authority in the Church that this cleric now maintains and the fact that the warnings regarding this cleric’s suitability for ministry have not been heeded, Bishop Joseph C. Bambera, D.D., J.C.L., Bishop of Scranton, encourages anyone who may have suspected, witnessed or suffered abuse at the hands of Fr. Urritugoity or any other cleric to immediately report this crime to local law enforcement.
What nonsense!
I don’t understand the point here. The boys on whom Father Urrutigoity got his dirty hands on and bedded down with were mostly students at St. Gregory’s Academy in Scranton (Moscow) PA. Those boys came from across the United States and Canada. There were in fact many Canadian boys who attended St. Greg’s, a boy’s school run by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter .
The boys were exposed to Father Urrutigoity and his fellow priests of the then fledgling Society of St. John when the society was housed at St. Greg’s. Eventually the Society got is own property in nearby Shahola.
So, how can this message from the Diocese of Scranton ever reach the victims who are literally spread across North America?
And even if victims do contact local law enforcement, what in truth can be done? Is there an extradition treaty between USA and Argentina?
But, never mind extradition, what of the Statute of Limitations? I recall in the past that the Statute of Limitations had expired and hence charges could not be laid. Why direct people to police if police have their hands tied by the law?
So, what’s the point of the statement aside a little more smoke and mirrors to pacify the troubled masses?
True, Father Urrutigoity no longer ‘belongs’ to the Diocese of Scranton – he is now incardinated in a diocese in Argentina. And he is incardinated there because the former Bishop of Scranton (Joseph Martinao) allowed him to be excardinatetd from the Scranton Diocese in order to become incardinated by Bishop Rogelio Livieres in Diocese of Ciudad del EsteParaguay.
But surely Scranton’s Bishop Bambera and officials in the Scranton Diocese can do better than this? A clerical sexual predator is prowling about the streets and sanctuaries of Paraguay.
Get Father Urrutigoity out of the priesthood. Have him defrocked. For goodness sake start fighting for what is right and good and justice. Start fighting to protect all those children who are right now willfully placed at risk. Push the Pope to intervene. Contact the media in Paragua and urge them to expose Urrutigoity for what he is. Fight to have Bishop Rogelio Livieres defrocked along with Urrutigoity
Fight for goodness sake. Fight. Never mind misdirecting the victims to wast everyone’s time by going to police. Fight for the victims who were abused in the past in Scranton, and fight for those vulnerable children in Paraguay, and fight o get those bishops who are enablers defrocked.