FALSE SHEPHERD, PART II: FLOODGATES OPEN – ‘Kent did the bish’; accusations pile up against Bishop Ryan
Editor’s Note: This story contains graphic descriptions of sexual abuse of minors and adults that readers might find disturbing. This material is not intended for children. If you or someone you know was sexually abused, contact local law enforcement for help.
Decorated U.S. Marine veteran Frank J. Kelly was fed up. Outside the Hyatt Regency hotel in Washington D.C., Kelly spotted the U.S. papal pro-nuncio, who a year earlier did his best to deep-six the sexual-misconduct investigation of Illinois Bp. Daniel L. Ryan. The no-holds-barred Kelly strode up to Abp. Agostino Cacciavillan, poked a finger in his chest and boomed, “You belong in jail for what you did to protect Daniel Ryan!” A nervous Cacciavillan said nothing and quickly retreated to his car. Kelly was with a group of protesters praying the Rosary and holding signs outside the semiannual meeting of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB). One sign read, “Bishop Ryan, Obey Your Superiors and Resign as Bishop!”
The retired lieutenant colonel’s tongue lashing of the archbishop in November 1997 is described in a nearly 570-page investigative report compiled over eight years by The Roman Catholic Faithful (RCF), a nonprofit watchdog group based in Petersburg, Ill. The document was initially filed with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Office for Child and Youth Protection. It describes a serial homosexual predator bishop who sexually abused minors, sexually harassed his own priests and consorted with male prostitutes. The altercation with Abp. Cacciavillan and the six protest signs carried outside the NCCB meeting were indicators the RCF campaign to oust Bp. Ryan had new urgency.
Just weeks later, a woman contacted RCF, alleging she knew where Bp. Ryan picked up teenage male prostitutes. Sandra J. Elraghy, 34, said she knew many of the male hookers who “dated” Ryan. Stephen G. Brady, RCF president and chief investigator, interviewed her outside of a Springfield, Ill. restaurant. She said she came forward after reading the chancery’s denials that Bp. Ryan was a homosexual, and public comments from the bishop’s spokeswoman that RCF officials were “ignorant of good church teaching.” She said she wanted the truth about the bishop to come out. “I was sitting on the laundromat table and when I read that I jumped right off there and looked up Steve Brady. I read that article, slammed the paper down, jumped off the table. I called Steve Brady and he came the same night.”1
diocese of Springfield in Illinois in January 1984.
Elraghy said she often saw Bp. Ryan stop and pick up male hookers like Frank Bergen (see “Part One: the Figure Eight“). “Me and Frank were standing in front of a bar just chit-chatting, she recalled of one instance. “He said, ‘I’ve got to go, there’s The Bish.’ I said, ‘The Bish?’ He said, ‘That’s the bishop of the Catholic Church. See you later.'”2 One day, she and Bergen watched “The Bish” pick up a hustler named Kent. “Kent did The Bish,” she told Brady. Elraghy and Bergen followed the car back to the rectory at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and waited for more than an hour for Kent to emerge from Bp. Ryan’s quarters.
Bergen told Elraghy of his own sexual involvement with Bp. Ryan. “I said, ‘that’s the bishop? He’s like taking the tithing money, the tithing money and giving it to you guys and you’re doing cocaine with it?'” an exasperated Elraghy asked. “And he’s like, ‘Yeah, we’re going to get really f***ed up.'”3 Elraghy gave Brady the names of hookers whom she said serviced the bishop. Some were real names and some were street names like “Peanut,” “O.D.,” “Big Joe” and “Spider.”4
Brady tracked Bergen to the Jacksonville Correctional Center, where he was serving a sentence for retail theft. Elraghy sent Bergen a letter asking him to share his Bp. Ryan story with Brady. Two weeks later, Brady sat across from Bergen at the Jacksonville prison. What he heard over the following four hours still weighs on him more than two decades later. “I always felt I was fairly strong and pretty much a hard nut to crack,” Brady said at the time, “but the story this man told almost made me ashamed to be a Catholic.”
scribbled this note confirming an investigation being opened into Bp. Ryan.
Bergen told of his many trips to the cathedral rectory for sex. He said Bp. Ryan liked expensive cigars and Johnnie Walker scotch. The bishop, who preferred young blonds, also had a foot fetish. Bergen said he confessed the sinful sex to Bp. Ryan just after they completed it. Sometimes, the bishop had Bergen kiss his ring, just as the faithful do when meeting the pope. Bergen talked of a friend who had sex with the bishop and later died of AIDS. After the friend was diagnosed with the deadly disease, Bergen said, the bishop refused to visit him — even when the man was on his deathbed. Bergen named a number of other priests whom he said paid him for sex over the years. One of those clerics died in the early 1990s, one was removed from ministry by his religious order but later returned to service in the diocese of Joliet, and another was removed from ministry in 2018 for allegedly “misappropriating” $29,000 and possessing a cache of homosexual pornography.5
Armed with the testimony from Elraghy and Bergen, Brady faxed the papal pro-nuncio in Washington, advising that he had new, troubling evidence of Bp. Ryan’s predatory behavior. He scheduled a press conference for Dec. 30. A week later, Brady received a call from Jimmy M. Lago, a special assistant to Chicago’s new archbishop, Most Rev. Francis E. George, O.M.I. Lago asked RCF to delay publicizing the new charges against Ryan. Brady would only agree if Lago provided a letter stating that Abp. George had opened an investigation into Bp. Ryan. Lago faxed a handwritten note to that effect several hours later, on Dec. 23. Lago, who was also the executive director of Catholic Charities, later succeeded Rev. Thomas J. Paprocki as chancellor of the archdiocese of Chicago.
It was the first exchange in what became a very contentious relationship between Brady and the Chicago archbishop. Father Alfred J. Kunz, a canon law expert from Wisconsin and close friend of RCF adviser Fr. John A. Hardon, warned Brady not to trust Lago, who was a close associate of the late Cdl. Joseph Bernardin. Lago flew to Springfield and met with RCF staff. He spoke to Fr. R. Doe and Elraghy about their allegations concerning Bp. Ryan and sexual misconduct.
“The issues that you have raised are very serious and it is our intent to pursue them in a serious and rigorous way,” Lago wrote.6 Publicly, though, he sang a very different tune. Lago told the Bloomington Pantagraph there was “no proof” against Ryan, and “nobody is willing or able to even step forward at this point.” James Bendell, RCF’s attorney, fired off an angry response. “That statement is a lie,” Bendell snapped, and “a betrayal of the trust we placed in you.”7
Then RCF cut off contact with Lago and planned for a Jan. 15, 1998 press conference. The night before the event, Abp. George telephoned Brady and urged him not to speak out. “If your first priority is to remove Ryan, do not go public,” George said, according to Brady’s notes from the call. George told him that if RCF remained “obedient” to the Church, RCF could have a relationship with the hierarchy. “He informed me that by going public, we would be stuck with [Bp.] Ryan,” Brady said.
Accusations Pile Up, Press Ignores
“I don’t expect you guys to print this,” Frank Bergen said as he sat before a very skeptical audience from the local State Journal-Register and told his life story. He shared graphic details of his sexual relationship with Bp. Ryan. His frustration grew as the interview progressed. A reporter challenged him on some of the details, especially related to other priests with whom he claimed to have paid sex. Bergen sensed the scribe’s disbelief. “I was an addict for a lot of years, and I know a lot of people won’t believe me, but I have a lot of people who do believe me and I know what I’m doing is right,” Bergen said.
Bergen got into a tangle with the reporter over when he first met Bp. Ryan. He had said he was 15 or 16 when Ryan first paid him for sex, which would have been during the fall of 1983. Bergen said Ryan liked to be called “The Bish,” but the reporter pointed out Ryan wasn’t installed as Springfield bishop until January 1984. Bergen insisted he was 15 or 16 when he first met Ryan, although he said perhaps the “Bish” nickname came later. Was Bergen mistaken? Ryan was a bishop in late 1983. He was made auxiliary bishop of the Joliet diocese in 1981.8 One of the street people who observed Bp. Ryan pick up tricks in downtown Springfield said Ryan cruised that area of town for sex in the months before he was installed as Springfield bishop.9
“All I have to gain back is my life, to gain my sense of guidance and my sense of purpose again,” Bergen said. “I don’t care what. You guys can print whatever you want. I don’t care. What I care about is seeing justice done.” No story appeared in the State Journal-Register. The paper said its reporters found it impossible to confirm Bergen’s story. Neither did the diocese of Springfield report Bergen’s accusations to the Sangamon County state’s attorney. Diocesan officials later cited the same “inconsistency” issues that kept the story out of the newspaper. The diocese’s own policy required such allegations be reported to law enforcement. Bergen later passed a polygraph test administered by an FBI-trained examiner, according to attorney Frederic W. Nessler.
newspaper was never published. (Photo: Sandra Fuiten)
The RCF press conference was attended by 70 people, although only a few were journalists. Elraghy read a statement about why she came forward with information about Bp. Ryan and male prostitutes. “I feel I have been chosen to begin something that creates scandal, when really the church should have taken care of this long ago,” she said. “It is a pity to know that so many have been deceived, that so many are not being truly faithful to God. The atrocities, hypocrisies, lies, deceptions and deceit of satan must be uncovered.” Elraghy said she hoped speaking out would lead to change. “Many people know not only of Bp. Daniel Ryan’s abuse of young male hustlers/prostitutes, but of his sexual harassment of his own priests,” she said. “Truly, the vileness must be eradicated. The fox is truly guarding the hen house around here and it is about time somebody spoke out about the truth.”
Brady read a letter from Bergen and handed out a transcript of his interview with Elraghy. Reporters picked at Elraghy and Bergen’s credibility, prompting one attendee to complain they were being unfair. Thomas Droleskey, a writer for the Catholic newspaper The Wanderer, chided the local reporters. “You have the names of two people who were part of the street life of this city. They have said that there are others who have knowledge of all this. Do your job as investigative reporters.” But, as with the first RCF press event in 1997, this one didn’t lead to news coverage.
While the diocesan chancery denied that Bp. Ryan was a homosexual predator, some of his clergy knew better. One priest, who was removed from ministry for sexual misconduct with two adults, told a fellow cleric: “If you ever want to scare the bishop, mention the name Frank Robert Bergen.”10
While Bergen’s credibility kept his story out of local media, RCF located more accusers. John Rossicoe, known on the street as “Peanut,” said he was only 15 when Bp. Ryan first paid him for sex. Rossicoe, like Bergen, had a troubled past that landed him in prison — the Centralia Correctional Institution. He had been an alcoholic, on the street since age 13. His left arm bore scars from stab wounds. A tattoo on his abdomen read, “No Fear.” He was convicted in 1996 of theft of a firearm and unlawful use of a weapon by a felon. He told Brady the prostitution with Bp. Ryan was only about $100 per session paid by The Bish. After about five paid visits, he cut off the relationship because he said it made him sick. “He could not stand the idea of doing that in a church with a bishop,” the RCF report said.11 “The bishop knew that he was wrong by messing with us when we were young,” Rossicoe said.12
Brady located the man who wrote the anonymous letter to the State Journal-Register (see “Part One: the Figure Eight”). He was Dale D. Daniels, 66, a retired paint salesman and Springfield rental-property owner. In the letter, Daniels identified Danny Evans, 32, as the bishop’s latest young male friend who received all sorts of largesse in exchange for sex. Daniels began faxing intelligence to RCF. On July 30, 1998, he wrote how Evans bragged about his “date” that night. Bishop Ryan “was taking him out to eat dinner at a real nice eating place and they will go out on the town, but he didn’t say what town,” the fax read. “Then afterward … fun … fun and more fun all at the expense of the Catlic (sic) Church.”13
Before long, Brady located Evans’ landlord and learned that Bp. Ryan had been paying the rent. He obtained copies of canceled checks. He contacted Evans’ ex-wife, Robin, and she agreed to supply information. The next day, she told Brady, Bp. Ryan came to her house. He wanted the canceled rent checks that Danny left at her home. He pressured her to call the state’s attorney and file a complaint against Brady and RCF. “He is a troublemaker,” the bishop said, according to Evans. Then the conversation turned very dark. Bp. Ryan looked at Robin and said, “You know I can damage you.” The bishop called her twice at work — once, warning her not to speak to Brady and once to offer her money to keep quiet, the report said. She refused.14
Robin Evans told Brady that Bp. Ryan molested Danny years before when he was an altar boy at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. During their one-year marriage, she said, the bishop picked Danny up almost weekly, saying he needed to borrow her husband for a project or errand. Danny came home hours later with groceries, household items or cash. She never had to buy diapers for their baby; Bishop Ryan took care of it.
utilities and other expenses for prostitute Danny Evans.
Several months after Robin gave a statement to RCF, Brady met Danny outside of a Hardee’s restaurant. He told Danny that RCF knew all about the sex-for-money arrangement with the bishop. Danny agreed to give a sworn statement. By the end of the afternoon, he confirmed what Brady already knew. Evans later said he went to motels with Bp. Ryan more than 50 times for paid sex, and traveled with the bishop around the U.S. and in Europe. Evans passed a lie-detector test administered by an FBI-trained polygraph examiner.
Kunz Murder Rocks Investigation
The Bp. Ryan investigation was rocked on March 4, 1998, when Fr. Kunz, RCF’s canon-law adviser, was found brutally murdered at St. Michael School in the village of Dane, Wis. Kunz’s throat had been slashed and he was left to bleed to death in the hallway outside his office in the parish school. Kunz’s work for RCF in exposing pederasty and sexual corruption was an immediate focus of the investigation. In late March 1998, detectives from the Dane County Sheriff’s Office traveled to Springfield, where they interviewed Bp. Ryan and twice spoke to Brady. They also interviewed Bergen and some of the priests who had accused Ryan of sexual abuse. Detectives would, in time, decide Kunz’s work for RCF was likely not related to the murder, although it has not been officially ruled out. The murder remains unsolved. [See the author’s three-part series on the Kunz investigation.]
March 3, 1998 in Dane, WI. The murder is unsolved. (Credit: Julie Howard)
Father Hardon told Brady he was firmly convinced the Kunz murder was “church-related.” Hardon also told a group of students, “I can safely say he was not just murdered, he was martyred.”15 After the murder, Hardon telephoned Fr. R. Doe (who had informed on Bp. Ryan to RCF and the Vatican) to tell him to lay low and speak to no one. Wisconsin detectives interviewed Fr. Hardon at his office near Detroit. Brady was the subject of several threats on his life while investigating corruption in the Church. He purchased a bulletproof vest after Kunz was murdered. In 2001, Brady was tipped off that he was “marked for assassination” by homosexual elements in the Church.16 The FBI investigated, but no arrests were made.
Was Bp. Ryan capable of murder, or ordering a hit on Fr. Kunz for helping RCF expose pederasty in the Catholic Church? One witness claimed Bp. Ryan threatened to kill Frank Bergen. Darrell Wilson, a onetime male prostitute who said he serviced the bishop, told the mother of one of his children about the threat in late December 1997. “He said Frank Bergen was blackmailing the bishop and said Bp. Ryan threatened to kill Bergen,” the RCF report said.17 His one-time girlfriend said Wilson feared he could also be killed if he spoke up about his prostitution with Bp. Ryan.18
Next — Part Three: ‘We are in Schism’
Previous — Part One: The Figure Eight
Part Two: End Notes
1 Author’s interview with Sandra (Elraghy) Fuiten, Oct. 21, 2019.
2 Ibid.
3 Transcript of Sandra Elraghy interview with Stephen G. Brady, Dec. 12, 1997, Springfield, Ill., Page 2.
4 Ibid, Page 8.
5 “Illinois Priest Removed for Homosexual Porn, Misappropriating $29,000,” Joseph M. Hanneman, Catholic World Report, Sept. 8, 2018.
6 Letter from Jimmy M. Lago, special assistant to Abp. Francis E. George, to Stephen G. Brady, Roman Catholic Faithful, faxed from archdiocese of Chicago, Dec. 24, 1997.
7 Letter from James M. Bendell, attorney at law, to Jimmy M. Lago, executive assistant to Abp. Francis George, sent via fax, Jan. 6, 1998.
8 Diocese of Springfield, “Bishop Daniel Ryan (1984-1999),” accessed online July 9, 2019.
9 E-mail exchange between “E.F.” and the author, July 15, 2019.
10 Introduction, Roman Catholic Faithful report to Robert Bennett, Esq., Office for Child & Youth Protection, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, March 14, 2003, Page 6 of 8.
11 Timeline of events, Roman Catholic Faithful, Page 11 of 18, submitted to Robert Bennett, Esq., Office for Child & Youth Protection, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, March 14, 2003.
12 John Rossicoe letter to Stephen G. Brady, Roman Catholic Faithful, Petersburg, Ill., Feb. 25, 1998; contained in Bennett Report, Part 5, Page 66.
13 “Bishop Ryan Sexual Allegations,” Anonymous letter sent to Ralph Loos, State Journal-Register, Springfield, Ill., Feb. 15, 1997.
14 Timeline of events, Roman Catholic Faithful, Page 14 of 18, submitted to Robert Bennett, Esq., Office for Child & Youth Protection, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, March 14, 2003.
15 MP3 recording of class lecture by Fr. Hardon, John A. Hardon, S.J. Audio Archives, The Real Presence Association, downloaded April 29, 2018.
16 “For your info and interest,” e-mail from (redacted) to Stephen G. Brady, Sept. 7, 2001.
17 Notes from conversations with Sandra Elraghy, Page 2, December 1997; Stephen G. Brady, Roman Catholic Faithful, Petersburg Ill.
18 The author’s interview with Sandra (Elraghy) Fuiten, Oct. 21, 2019.
Read the source: https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/false-shepherd-part-ii
FALSE SHEPHERD, PART III: ‘WE ARE IN SCHISM’
Church sex abuse scandal goes postal in Illinois
Editor’s Note: This series of stories contains graphic descriptions of sexual abuse of minors and adults that readers might find disturbing. This material is not intended for children. If you or someone you know was sexually abused, contact local law enforcement for help.
“We are in schism.” Father John A. Hardon, S.J., minced no words when summing up the situation between Rome and the Catholic Church in the United States in the late 1990s. Few understood the inner machinations of the Holy See better than Hardon, a highly respected theologian and author of dozens of books on the Catholic Faith.
After unsuccessfully lobbying the curia of Pope St. John Paul II to remove Illinois Bp. Daniel L. Ryan for sexual misconduct, Fr. Hardon told associates the pope felt powerless to force reform on the American bishops. “The Holy Father wants to prevent a de facto break — a formal, explicit schism — with Rome,” he said. Hardon echoed the sentiments of his Vatican superior, Cdl. Édouard Gagnon, who nine years earlier privately lamented that the American bishops “will not obey the Holy Father” when he seeks to intervene in U.S. Church matters.1
and tried to get the Vatican to act on Bp. Ryan.
Father Hardon’s efforts and reaction are described in a nearly 570-page investigative report compiled over eight years by The Roman Catholic Faithful Inc. (RCF), a nonprofit watchdog group based in Petersburg, Ill. The document was filed with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Office for Child and Youth Protection. It describes widespread homosexual misconduct and corruption by a sitting U.S. bishop and the years-long effort to remove him from office. This all happened years before the sex-abuse crisis blew up in the Church in 2002 — and was a harbinger of the $3.65 billion that the Catholic Church would pay out in settlements, support and attorney fees as a result of priestly sexual abuse in the United States.2
Having failed to get action from the U.S. papal pro-nuncio and the curia at the Vatican, RCF decided the best course of action to remove Bp. Ryan was more publicity. The group mailed 30,000 postcards detailing allegations against Ryan. On one side of the cards was a photograph of two protesters holding a banner outside the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. The banner read: “A Disgrace to the Catholic Church! Bishop Daniel L. Ryan of Springfield, IL … Soliciting Sex from Priests! … Paying Teenage Boys for Sex!” The reverse side said Chicago Cdl. Francis George and the Vatican knew about Ryan’s homosexual activity but did nothing to remove him.
U.S. Postal Inspector Terrence L. Cullivan sent Brady a letter threatening criminal prosecution for the postcard mailing. He cited Title 18 of the U.S. Code that prohibited mailing communications that contain a threat to injure the reputation of another person or accuse the person of a crime. The next day, RCF attorney James Bendell filed a grievance against Cullivan with Attorney General Janet Reno. He said the postcard cannot fall under the U.S. Code prohibitions because its contents are true. He called the postal inspector’s letter a “frivolous threat of criminal prosecution.” Instead of holding back on mailings, RCF sent the postcard to every member of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. No action was ever taken by the U.S. Postal Service against Brady or RCF.
It’s Time to go, Bishop
By October 1999, the Vatican had finally seen and heard enough of Bp. Ryan’s nefarious assignations. On Oct. 19, the Holy See announced Ryan’s resignation and the appointment of his successor, Msgr. George J. Lucas, a seminary rector and former vicar general from the archdiocese of St. Louis. The dual announcement was carried in L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper.
Bp.-Designate Msgr. George J. Lucas. (Photo: State Journal-Register/microfilm)
Bishop Ryan positioned the move as his idea, prompted by a desire to withdraw from being “where the buck stops.” He said Pope John Paul II “has done me a great service by agreeing to my wish.”3 Since Bp. Ryan had previously scheduled mandatory meetings with his priests for November, the explanation that he “retired” rang hollow. He was still some six years shy of the mandatory retirement age for bishops. Lucas only found out about his appointment a few days before the Vatican announcement.
Bishop Ryan insisted the timing had nothing to do with the three-year campaign seeking his ousting. He became the third bishop to resign over the previous year after being accused of homosexual misconduct with minors and priests. His departure likely had more than a little to do with a lawsuit filed 10 days later accusing him of covering up the sexual abuse of an altar boy by the Rev. Alvin L. Campbell, 74, arguably one of America’s worst serial pederast priests. Campbell was sentenced to 14 years in prison for sexually abusing altar boys while he was pastor at St. Maurice Catholic Church in Morrisonville, Ill.
The lawsuit, filed by attorney Frederic W. Nessler on behalf of former altar boy Matthew McCormick, alleged Bishop Ryan’s homosexual activity created a lax atmosphere that tolerated sexual abuse of minors in the diocese. The suit included testimony from former prostitutes Frank Bergen and Danny Evans (see “Part One: the Figure Eight” and “Part Two: Floodgates Open”). The suit was later settled for $3 million, divided among 28 victims of priestly sexual abuse. McCormick said Bp. Ryan flew to Texas and tried to persuade him not to file the litigation.4
Bishop Ryan and his predecessor, Bp. Joseph A. McNicholas, were well aware of Fr. Campbell’s long history as a predatory sex abuser, court records indicate.5 Police and prosecutors suspect Campbell sexually abused as many as 100 boys. Several months before Campbell was indicted on criminal charges, Bp. Ryan’s chancery told state police it opposed his prosecution.6 Bishop Ryan denied being uncooperative with investigators, but “in the interest of fairness” would not divulge how long he had known of Campbell’s sex-abuse track record. Campbell was paroled in 1992 and died in St. Louis in 2002.
100 boys from at least three Illinois parishes before his 1985 arrest.
Father Campbell’s sexual predation started at age 18 when, as an assistant scout master, he had sexual contact with a 14-year-old boy at camp, according to court records. Campbell became “totally preoccupied with sexual activity with young boys between the ages of 14–16,” psychiatrist Dr. Philipp Bornstein wrote in a court-ordered evaluation in 1985. Campbell told Bornstein his pederasty began in 1962 at age 37, a decade after his ordination and just before he enlisted in the U.S. military. Prior to this time, he resisted his strong attraction to young boys, he told therapists.
Campbell “gradually became involved with a variety of boys,” Bornstein wrote. While serving in Vietnam, he engaged in “sexual contact with Vietnamese children,” one court document stated. He told a therapist he had sex with a 16-year-old Vietnamese boy at least once a week. Later, while stationed in Louisiana, he said he molested brothers, ages 13 and 15.7 While visiting New York’s Times Square in 1967, he frequented smut shops and became addicted to pornography. That vice continued until his 1985 arrest. Child pornography accounted for 90 percent of the material he consumed.8
As a lieutenant colonel in 1977, he was issued a letter of reprimand from the U.S. Army for “engaging in indecent homosexual acts with a minor dependent under 16 years of age,” wrote Brig. Gen. Joseph C. Racke.9 The general ripped Campbell for his “total lack of judgment, discretion and moral conviction.” A 15-year-old church organist confessed to his parents he had sex with the priest. Despite leaving the Army due to sexual misconduct, Fr. Campbell said he was allowed to retire with full benefits in December 1977.
for sexually abusing altar boys. (Photo: State Journal-Register/microfilm)
Father Campbell convinced Bp. McNicholas that his “problem” was under control and he was eager to begin pastoral work.10 In February 1978, he was assigned to the Church of St. Jude in Rochester, Ill. Within four months, he resigned and was placed on a “leave of absence for health,” diocesan records show. At St. Jude, Fr. Campbell repeatedly molested and raped a 17-year-old boy who led a parish youth group, according to lawsuit settlement records. Campbell was suicidal at the time and sought mental-health treatment. McNicholas sent him to a psychologist and Campbell was admitted to the House of Affirmation — a treatment center for priests with psychological and psychosexual problems — for evaluation.11 According to the victim, he reported Campbell’s touching and kissing (but not the anal rape) to a parish priest in Springfield in July 1978. Bishop McNicholas sent two priests to meet with the family. The priests told the boy’s parents that Campbel’s actions “were harmless and urged them all to keep quiet about the incidents because it could be embarrassing,” lawsuit testimony revealed.12
After being reassigned to the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Assumption, Ill., in February 1979, Fr. Campbell had sex with teen boys “six or eight times” over an 18-month period.13 He photographed and videotaped the sexual abuse of at least one boy.14 He told a victim he would “get him” if he ever reported the abuse. That individual later said Fr. Campbell “killed the young man in me.”15 At age 33, the victim said, “the nightmares and flashbacks became so unbearable, I loaded a pistol, pointed it at my temple … and fired. The bullet ricocheted off my head. Did God allow me to live or did the devil thwart my suicide so I must continue to live in this Hell?”16
Another boy, then 12, said Fr. Campbell molested him after a trip to the movies, and again when he came to the priest for help with a Boy Scout project. The priest later attempted to sexually abuse him in the confessional.17 Ever since that time, the victim said, “I have felt worthless and grotesque.” He and two other victims reported Campbell’s abuse to two teachers at St. Mary’s school, but no action was taken. Campbell was given leave of absence in December 1981 after a teenage girl accused him of fondling her breasts. He left Assumption in the middle of the night and never returned. Police investigating those allegations said diocesan officials refused to cooperate in the case.18
When Fr. Campbell arrived at St. Maurice in Morrisonville in 1982, he set up the rectory like a teen game room. Boys from the parish made it their daily hang-out, playing pool and ping-pong, watching movies and filling up on cookies and other snacks. Father Campbell often walked around the children in the nude. One boy told police he walked into Fr. Campbell’s bedroom and saw the priest molesting a friend on the waterbed. Another boy reported seeing Fr. Campbell molesting two boys at once in the kitchen. A third boy told state police that after Fr. Campbell gave him a set of headphones as a gift, the priest told him, “now Fr. Campbell gets something in return.”19
A group of parents who became suspicious of Fr. Campbell and all the activity at the rectory confronted him in March 1985. They told him they suspected he was sexually abusing their children and they wanted him to leave town. One parent asked him, “Do you want to do it the easy way or the hard way?” After a long pause, Campbell sighed and said, “I’ll leave.”20
State police said when they began investigating the case in 1985, the diocese refused to cooperate. “They would have liked for us to have just dropped it — they didn’t want the publicity,” said Commander Carroll Ray “CR” McGrew of the Illinois Division of Criminal Investigation. Eventually, the diocese relented and began helping police. Bishop Ryan took umbrage at McGrew’s statement, which he said was “bordering on libelous.” 21
diocese of Springfield did not initially cooperate in the
Campbell investigation. (Photo: Tributes.com)
Father Campbell was indicted by a grand jury in July 1985. He later pled guilty but mentally ill to charges he sexually abused seven altar boys between 1982 and March 1985. His crimes included anal rape, groping, and with one boy, lifting him by the waist over his head while performing oral sex. Another boy, who suffered days of rectal bleeding after he said he was raped by the priest, said Bp. Ryan told him in 1997 to keep quiet about the abuse.22
At Fr. Campbell’s sentencing hearing in October 1985, Fourth Judicial Circuit Judge Joseph L. Fribley lambasted the diocese for enabling Campbell’s abuse. “It is beyond my ability to comprehend the actions of your church in repeatedly placing you in positions to perpetrate the conduct that you have,” Fribley said. The judge rejected any notion that Campbell be given probation instead of prison. “Many of these things will haunt that area long after you’re gone from this earth,” he said. “I don’t think some of these people will ever be the same again. … Your evil is going to live a long time after you’re gone.”23
for enabling Fr. Campbell’s sexual abuse of minors.
After the criminal conviction, Bp. Ryan asked Fr. Campbell to voluntarily submit to laicization or a return to the lay state. He refused. Bishop Ryan wrote to Cdl. Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, who was then head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in February 1989, seeking to have Campbell laicized. Cardinal Ratzinger refused, citing church law at the time, because Campbell would not go along with the discipline. With a canonical trial against him later underway in the diocese of Springfield, Campbell wrote to the Holy Father in October 1991 requesting laicization.24 That request was granted.
Cardinal George Clears Ryan?
Media reports on the Campbell lawsuit included a bombshell revelation. From the Chicago Tribune: “Cardinal Francis George held an inquiry into similar allegations against [Bp.] Ryan this year and found no credible evidence of misconduct, a spokesman for George said Thursday.”25 No credible evidence? Brady couldn’t believe what he was reading. He fired off a letter to the editor stating that the quote in the article was “false and misleading” and contradicted conversations Brady had with Cdl. George.
“It is beyond belief that the cardinal would use his spokesman to lie in an apparent effort to save himself and his fellow bishops embarrassment,” the letter said. “Cardinal George, if he continues to stand behind that statement, has committed a grave injustice to all who have suffered because of Bp. Ryan’s misconduct.” A spokesman for George wrote to Brady denying he used the words “no credible evidence.” However, a writer for the Catholic newspaper Credo produced a direct quote from his interview with the spokesman that included those exact words. The spokesman, James Dwyer, gave this quote a week later to the Belleville News-Democrat: “We didn’t see anything we needed to take action on.”
Why was Cdl. George publicly so reticent? In January 1998, he agreed with Fr. Hardon that the Vatican hierarchy had long known of Bp. Ryan’s homosexual behavior.26 Yet George told columnist Matt C. Abbott “there is no evidence of wrongdoing, other than Ryan’s ‘imprudent’ association with certain individuals.”27 That statement led to a war of words between Brady and the cardinal.
“Surely Mr. Abbott misunderstood your comments. To assume otherwise would suggest you are a liar who has some reason to protect a pervert bishop,” Brady wrote in February 2001. “One wonders what Bp. Ryan must know that would cause other bishops to lie for him. Maybe we should take a closer look at others who protect the wolf.” George wrote back that he did not consider the 1999 lawsuit filed against Bp. Ryan, or the sworn affidavits in that suit, to be proof of anything. He told Brady his letter contained “the kind of sarcasm often used by enemies of the Catholic Faith who hate bishops and priests.”
Bishop Emeritus — Retired but not Reformed
The Bp. Ryan scorecard was plain ugly: five sexually abused priests, three underage teen male prostitutes, more than a dozen other male hookers, and one instance of masturbating in public. If Bp. Emeritus Ryan was an embarrassment to the Catholic Church, he was never treated like one. The Nov. 21, 1999 issue of the diocesan newspaper, the Catholic Times, called him a “valued shepherd” and a “precious resource for the Diocese of Springfield.” It was hagiography at its finest.
appearance by Bp. Ryan outside the Joliet cathedral. (Photo: RCF)
Days after his abrupt resignation, the State Journal-Register lauded Bp. Ryan’s leadership on education and ecumenism. The paper’s only reference to his alleged misconduct was in saying he had been “dogged in recent years by picketers.” The editorial then suggested the sexual-abuse allegations against Ryan could have been fabricated. The headline on the editorial: “A job well done by Bishop Ryan.”28
Ryan was one of three bishops to serve as consecrators for the installation of Msgr. Lucas as bishop of the diocese Springfield. At the ceremony, Cdl. George praised Bp. Ryan for his service, prompting a standing ovation. In fall 2000, the bishop emeritus presided at a World Youth Day Mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville, Ill. He presided at confirmation Masses for teens at St. Michael Catholic Church in Wheaton, Ill. In February 2002, he was the main presenter at a daylong retreat for priests in Carlinville, Ill. He served as a co-consecrator at the installation of James Fitzgerald as auxiliary bishop of the diocese of Joliet. Brady and volunteers from RCF stood outside of the Joliet cathedral that day with protest banners that read: “Bishop Daniel L. Ryan Had Sex with Teenage Boys & Priests.”
Joliet Bp. Joseph L. Imesch, who helped put Ryan in the bishop’s chair in Springfield, lashed out at Ryan’s accusers. A Joliet parishioner who sent Imesch a postcard with details about the sexually harassed priests and male prostitutes got a tart reply. “I received the card you sent me and I am astonished that you would send me such trash, and even more, that you would believe it.” Another parishioner who sent Imesch the same postcard received this rejoinder: “I believe calumny is still a sin.”29
Brady summed up his evaluation of the situation:
I believe that a large number of our bishops appear to lack any sense of shame and seem determined to destroy the Church. All the half-truths, double talk and lame apologies spewing from their mouths can no longer be tolerated. The fruits of their actions have been laid bare. They have no credibility left and they don’t even know it.
were never prosecuted due to expiration of the statute of limitations.
Bishop Ryan was forced to suspend all public ministry in September 2002, when Frank Thomas Anthony Sigretto alleged the bishop paid him for sex at the cathedral rectory in August 1984, just weeks after he turned 15. Sigretto said the bishop approached him as he walked near South Grand Avenue in Springfield and offered him a ride. He alleged Bp. Ryan took him to the cathedral rectory, where the bishop said he would pay him $50 to take off his clothes and accept a massage with baby oil. During the encounter, Sigretto said, he objected when Bp. Ryan touched his genitals and again when the bishop attempted to anally rape him, according to sworn lawsuit testimony.30 Sigretto passed a lie-detector test, according to attorney Nessler.
“He started touching my genitals and I flipped over so that he couldn’t touch me there,” Sigretto said. “When I did, he rubbed me down and he tried to put his thing in me.” After Sigretto protested again, Ryan ceased his attempts to sodomize the boy. Ryan then took $50 from an ATM near the rectory and paid Sigretto. Ryan approached Sigretto one other time while the youth walked on Ninth Street, but Sigretto said he refused the offer of a ride.
Sigretto’s allegations were forwarded to the Sangamon County state’s attorney’s office, but no prosecution took place due to expiration of the statute of limitations. Sigretto’s testimony was added to the 1999 McCormick lawsuit filed against Bp. Ryan and the diocese of Springfield. His allegations were turned over to the clergy-abuse panel of a diocese in another state for investigation and then sent to Rome. No details were ever made public. “The Vatican covered it up,” Brady said. “Cardinal [Francis] George admitted that to me.”31
Masses and other events in Springfield and Joliet, Ill. (Photo: RCF)
Bishop Lucas never reported any results from the Sigretto investigation. In mid-2018, however, the now-archbishop of Omaha revealed that the Vatican ordered secrecy after the Congregation for Bishops reprimanded Bp. Ryan and permanently barred him from ministry.32
“So I knew about it but the people of God didn’t know about it,” Lucas said, “So it appeared to everyone that nothing was happening. And because the bishop (Ryan) himself didn’t have self-direction in the right way, the Church really suffered there and people rightly asked, ‘Can’t somebody do something about this?’ They were looking at me saying, ‘Why don’t you do something?'”
Lucas said he took evidence of Bp. Ryan’s “grave misconduct” to the papal nuncio in Washington, “and really got no effective response at all.” The apostolic nuncio to the United States at the time was Abp. Pietro Sambi, who died in 2011. Lucas said he next took the case to the Congregation for Bishops.
“That was a painful episode in the life of that local church and in my own life,” Abp. Lucas said. “I do think it’s important for everybody in the church to know that bishops are accountable and to understand how we are, and for there to be a structure to communicate to God’s people what’s being done when something needs to be done, when a bishop needs to be disciplined, so that he doesn’t simply just walk off the stage and disappear, but that there is a sense that there is some accountability.”33
Next — Part Four: More Damage and Corruption
Previous — Part Two: Floodgates Open
Part Three: End Notes
1 “The Many Faces of Cardinal Bernardin,” E. Michael Jones, Fidelity, South Bend, Ind., March 1990, Page 27.
2 According to U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops data, dioceses, eparchies and religious institutes in the United States paid out $3,650,472,047 between 2004 and 2018 for settlements, therapy and other support, and attorney fees related to the sex-abuse crisis.
3 “Pope Accepts Bishop’s Resignation, Appoints St. Louisan as His Successor,” The Associated Press, Journal Gazette, Mattoon, Ill., Oct. 20, 1999, Page 10.
4 “Ordained by God, Accused by Boys,” Allison Hantschel, The Daily Southtown, Tinley Park, Ill., Aug. 11, 2002, copy included in Roman Catholic Faithful investigative report on Daniel L. Ryan.
5 Psychiatric Evaluation Report on Rev. Alvin L. Campbell, Philipp E. Bornstein, M.D., Aug. 8, 1985, Page 2.
6 “One Case Points to a Greater Tragedy,” Joe Stephens, State Journal-Register, Springfield, Ill., Jan. 7, 1986, Page 3.
7 “Early Encounters Set a Pattern,” Joe Stephens, State Journal-Register, Springfield, Ill., Jan. 5, 1986, Page 3.
8 Ibid.
9 “Letter of Reprimand,” Brig. Gen. Joseph C. Racke, Department of the Army, Headquarters, 5th Signal Command, Office of the Commanding General; to Chaplain Lt. Col. Alvin Louis Campbell, U.S. Military Command Activity, Worms, Germany; Dec. 19, 1977.
10 Letter from Bp. Daniel L. Ryan to His Holiness Pope John Paul II, Springfield, Ill., Oct. 31, 1991, Page 1.
11 Ibid.
12 “Aggravating Factors,” report on sexual abuse of (name redacted) at St. Jude Catholic Church, attorney Frederic W. Nessler, Page 3 of 6.
13 Stephens, State Journal-Register, Springfield, Ill., Jan. 7, 1986, Page 3.
14 “Details of Abuse,” case of victim (name redacted) at St. Mary Catholic Church, Assumption, Ill., as reported to attorney Frederic Nessler, Springfield, Ill.
15 “Impact of Abuse,” part of report on abuse victim (name redacted), St. Mary Catholic Church, Assumption, Ill., attorney Frederic W. Nessler, Springfield, Ill.
16 “Personal Statement,” abuse victim (name redacted), a former altar boy from St. Mary Catholic Church, Assumption, Ill., as reported to attorney Frederic W. Nessler, Springfield, Ill.
17 “Details of Abuse,” report on sexual abuse of (name redacted), a fifth-grader at St. Mary Catholic School, Assumption, Ill., as reported to attorney Nessler, Page 3 of 6.
18 “Early Encounters Set a Pattern,” State Journal-Register, Page 3.
19 Ibid.
20 Ibid.
21 Ibid.
22 Victim/witness statement of (redacted), youth group leader at St. Jude Catholic Church, Rochester, Ill., given to attorney Frederic W. Nessler, Springfield, Ill., Page 4 of 6.
23 “Priest Gets 14 Years for Sex Crimes,” Charles Bosworth Jr., St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 26, 1985, Page 7.
24 Letter from Fr. Alvin L. Campbell to His Holiness Pope John Paul II, Logan Correctional Center, Lincoln, Ill., Oct. 30, 1991.
25 “Suit Accuses Ex-Prelate of Shielding Abuse,” Bradley Keoun, Chicago Tribune, Oct. 29, 1999, Section 2, Page 7.
26 Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, Roman Catholic Faithful Inc., Petersburg, Ill., Spring/Summer 2001 issue, Page 14.
27 Ibid, Page 29.
28 “A Job Well-Done by Bishop Ryan,” State Journal-Register, Springfield, Ill., Oct. 24, 1999, Page 16.
29 Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, Roman Catholic Faithful Inc., Petersburg, Ill., Spring/Summer 2001 issue, Page 13.
30 Victim/witness statement from Frank T.A. Sigretto, given to attorney Frederic W. Nessler, Springfield, Ill.
31 E-mail from Stephen G. Brady to the author, Oct. 7, 2019.
32 “The Shepherd’s Voice” audio podcast, archdiocese of Omaha, Episode 19: “Facing the Ugliness in the Church,”Abp. George J. Lucas and David Hazen, Omaha, Neb., Aug. 24, 2018.
33 Ibid.
Read the source: https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/false-shepherd-part-iii-we-are-in-schism