Parish Shaken by Reports of Sexual and Financial Misdeeds

Something bad was going on at St. Elizabeth's parish in Ozone Park, Queens, and Barbara Samide said recently that she had tried to get the Diocese of Brooklyn to do something about it since shortly after she was hired as principal of the parish's elementary school nearly two years ago.

The problems, she said, could hardly have been more serious, and at least two dozen times she sought out senior officials with the diocese to lay out what she insisted was a shocking situation: the Rev. John Thompson, the parish's pastor, had an 18-year-old gay lover living in the rectory and was lavishing gifts on him that were paid for with school funds; the school's budget was nearly $300,000 in the red, and Father Thompson had disbanded the parish committee charged with overseeing tuition collection; many parishioners had already sent a letter to the diocese expressing concerns, and were in near revolt.

The diocese's response, she said, never varied for more than a year and a half: keep quiet, its officials told her. The church, one of the diocese's vicars said to her, will handle its own priests and problems.

Finally, in March, months after the national scandal of abuse and misconduct by priests had engulfed the church and with the diocese still failing to act at St. Elizabeth's, Mrs. Samide said she threatened to go to prosecutors with her information.

At last, Father Thompson, 50, resigned, but with the diocese so far failing to act on its own, Mrs. Samide's faith in the church's determination to deal with explosively embarrassing problems remains shaken. She and other parishioners at St. Elizabeth's said that what had happened since the resignation suggested that even after American bishops had returned from their historic meeting in Dallas with a plan to end past cover-ups of priestly misconduct, the culture of secrecy and stonewalling that characterized the church's handling of such problems appeared entrenched.

Father Thompson, upon his resignation, simply moved to another parish, in Far Rockaway, where he does not have an official title, but where he continues to say Mass. Officials with the diocese told parishioners at St. Elizabeth's that he remains a priest in good standing.

Moreover, Mrs. Samide, who went ahead and notified prosecutors, has been instructed by diocesan officials not to speak about what happened. Last week she said she had been reprimanded by diocesan officials for cooperating with detectives with the Queens district attorney's office, which has now empaneled a grand jury to investigate the situation at St. Elizabeth's.

Frank DeRosa, a spokesman for the diocese, said Bishop Thomas V. Daily would have no comment on the St. Elizabeth's situation or on Mrs. Samide's charges, although he said the diocese was cooperating with prosecutors. Msgr. James Spengler, the diocesan official to whom Mrs. Samide said she directly complained, said a diocesan lawyer had advised him not to respond to questions. Father Thompson did not return repeated calls seeking comment, nor did his lawyer.

"The bishops just spent three days in Dallas talking about being honest, candid and forthright," Mrs. Samide said, "and yet, right here, the message they're sending is shut down, don't cooperate. It's scary."

Officials with the district attorney's office would not discuss the specifics of the investigation. But as part of its investigation into the handling of finances at St. Elizabeth's, prosecutors have subpoenaed the school's records, and notified Mrs. Samide and other school officials that they will be questioned later this month. And Mrs. Samide said she would soon file a sexual harassment suit against Father Thompson and the diocese that kept him as pastor so long.

Whatever the fate of the criminal investigation, the people of St. Elizabeth's say they already feel robbed of their confidence in a church that they say acted as it all too often has: with concern for hiding its problems, and by using its finances to help cover them up.

"I would like to know why they didn't they do anything," said Doreen McLean, a parishioner whose two children attended the school. "It doesn't leave the Catholic Church looking very good, especially now."

The portrait of the pastor and the parish's problems drawn by Mrs. Samide was supported in interviews with many parishioners in recent weeks.

Moments before she was handed the keys to St. Elizabeth's in fall 2000, Mrs. Samide said, she had an unsettling talk with the departing principal.

"Document everything," she remembered Sister Francis Marie Sheridan cautioning her, "and watch the money."

The unexpected warning made her uneasy, but Mrs. Samide, 39, was so thrilled finally to become a Roman Catholic school principal after teaching for 15 years that she set aside her concerns. For her, coming from an intensely religious New York family that included a diocesan priest, a Franciscan brother and a Josephite sister, this was a middle-class Catholic dream, even though she knew St. Elizabeth's had problems.

Heeding the advice of her predecessor, Mrs. Samide kept a detailed diary. It did not take long, she said, for the startling entries to begin. One of the earliest came in October 2000. Mrs. Samide says Father Thompson, after an awards dinner in Manhattan, directed her to a West Village leather bar, where he said he was a regular. He invited her to join him, she said, but she declined.

That incident, she said, triggered her first call to Monsignor Spengler, the vicar for southern Queens. She said he told her that the diocese knew Father Thompson was actively gay. He took no action, though.

Mrs. Samide said she was not upset by the fact that Father John was gay; so are some members of her own family. But he seemed not to be restrained by his collar. She said he participated in an Internet chat room where his nickname was Papi Chulo, a Spanish slang term with sexual overtones, and his profile listed his interests as "men, music and the beach."

But in late 2000 and early 2001, Mrs. Samide said, the pastor's conduct became almost absurdly provocative. He made no effort to hide that he was living and sleeping with a young man in the rectory. The pastor told her to find work for the young man at the school, Mrs. Samide said.

The young man, Jonathan, told her that he was 18, a dancer from upstate New York who had been on the West Village streets since he was 13. Mrs. Samide sent him to work with the custodian.

By mid-January, Father Thompson was taking the young man on vacations to resorts in Florida, including the Blue Dolphin in Fort Lauderdale, which advertises its clothing-optional pool area, Mrs. Samide said. She said the trips were ultimately paid for out of school money over which Father Thompson had asserted nearly complete control.

In May 2001, the young man left the rectory. He continued to come around afterward, and occasionally called Mrs. Samide asking for money, she said. By last September, Mrs. Samide said, Father Thompson told her that he was $26,000 in debt because of money he spent on Jonathan.

Mrs. Samide said that throughout the young man's stay at the rectory, as parishioners grew concerned, she repeatedly informed Monsignor Spengler at the diocesan offices of the problem. Nothing, she said, was done.

St. Elizabeth's is a struggling parish in a working-class neighborhood of small houses clad in aluminum siding along the J subway line. There are 320 students in the school, most the children of hard-working parents. A $300,000 debt meant she was often in danger of being unable to pay her teachers, and so nothing was more difficult for Mrs. Samide to accept than Father Thompson's handling of St. Elizabeth's finances.

Just before Mrs. Samide became principal, she said, Father Thompson rearranged the parish's finances, switching banks and removing the principal's name from all accounts but one, which was used for tuition checks.

Many people other than Mrs. Samide had trouble with Father Thompson. After he switched banks, he tried to take complete control of all finances by disbanding a parish committee that oversaw collection of school tuition, angering parishioners. A few months later, he accused the school's longtime bookkeeper, Angelica DiMaria, of mishandling money, even though he had control of it. He replaced Mrs. DiMaria with his sister-in-law, Dorian Thompson.

Mrs. DiMaria denied that she had mishandled money and said in an interview last week that she had reported her complaints to the diocese, to no effect.

The people of St. Elizabeth's ran out of patience after Father Thompson disbanded the committee that kept track of the money from the Sunday collection and insisted on counting it himself.

Robert Mayer, who belonged to both the tuition committee and the Sunday collection committee, said he wrote to diocesan officials asking for Father Thompson to be removed. Other parishioners did the same. Nothing happened.

"It's the same thing as with the sexual abuse cases," Mr. Mayer said. "I can't put my finger on it exactly and say Father John stole money or had some kid living at the rectory because I don't have all the facts, but I can say that there was no sincere effort to look into this by the hierarchy."

Parents at St. Elizabeth's began to complain that their tuition payments were never recorded. The money from fund-raising events, including $14,000 from a chocolate sale, disappeared, they said.

In February of this year, with the national scandal of sex abuse and cover-ups at full boil, so much money was missing from the school's accounts that the diocese began an audit of school finances.

Soon, Mrs. Samide said, she had had enough. In March, she went over Monsignor Spengler's head and complained to Msgr. Guy J. Puglisi, the diocese's superintendent of schools, and threatened to contact the authorities.

Monsignor Puglisi, she said, told her to leave the school temporarily because of her problems with Father Thompson.

But even now, Mrs. Samide says, the diocese has failed to acknowledge the problem formally and take meaningful action. Monsignor Spengler, in addressing the parish in April, said Father Thompson had not been accused of sexual misconduct, but had resigned for health and confidential reasons.

Father Thompson now lives at St. Gertrude's parish in Far Rockaway, where a parish employee said he continued to celebrate Mass.

After her showdown with the hierarchy, Mrs. Samide said, she continued to be told to keep quiet by some diocesan officials or risk losing her position. She said diocesan officials had advised her to hire a lawyer, and she did.

Then she notified prosecutors, and provided them with memorandums, financial records and canceled checks. She has also kept detailed accounts of her complaints to Father Thompson and the diocese.

The parish, meanwhile, has been left reeling. "We're very hurt, especially since Monsignor Spengler came in and said that he's still a priest in good standing," said Ms. McLean, the parishioner.

Mrs. Samide, who said Father Thompson had been verbally abusive and taunted her with pornographic material, is preparing a sexual harassment suit against Father Thompson and other officials of the diocese, naming Bishop Thomas V. Daily as the church official in charge of controlling the diocese's priests. The spokesman for the diocese said they were anticipating the suit, but would not comment on it.

"The officials responsible for this had complete information from Mrs. Samide about the sexual harassment and the theft of school funds," said Michael G. Dowd, a lawyer representing Mrs. Samide. "Their only response was to urge her to keep silent, and that in time things would work out."

Mrs. Samide said she feared that the diocese might try to fire her. At least one official says she has nothing to worry about. "There is no danger of her losing her job at all," Monsignor Puglisi said.

Despite everything, Mrs. Samide said her faith remained strong, but she was not certain that the hierarchy would follow through on all the promises it made in Dallas.

"If justice is done at St. Elizabeth's," she said, "this would be a sign that they have looked at the sins of the past and learned from them."

This is a deeply disturbing story. Looks like this weak and obviously nefarious bishop failed the first test. Simply horrible.

Bishop Daily does not appear to be bad himself, but he sure let a lot of strange things go on in that diocese. Brooklyn has had lots of corruption, some of it involving sexual antics (usually gay) and some of it involving financial irregularities. I've always gotten the impression that priests in that diocese could do pretty much whatever they wanted, and Bp. Dailey would either not know or not care.

Diocese of Brooklyn

Office of Public Information
75 Greene Avenue, P.O. Box C
Brooklyn, NY 11215

Phone: (718) 399-5900, ext. 5504
Fax: (718) 399-5957

Bishop Thomas V. Daily

After her showdown with the hierarchy, Mrs. Samide said, she continued to be told to keep quiet by some diocesan officials or risk losing her position. She said diocesan officials had advised her to hire a lawyer, and she did.

Guess Nebraska isn't the only place where diocesan officials are threating whistleblowers with their jobs.

Hat-Trick

I've always gotten the impression that priests in that diocese could do pretty much whatever they wanted, and Bp. Dailey would either not know or not care.

Red alert: Bishop Thomas V. Daily is the national chaplain for the Knights of Columbus!

The priest was sodomizing an 18-year old boy. This way, he could say he didn't involve a minor. (Guess it's OK, then, right?) I have a friend whose brother, at age 20, went to work with a priest on a project for the homeless. After one week, the priest made heavy sexual moves on the guy. My brother's friend was so disillusioned and disgusted that he's never set a foot in a Catholic Church since. Teenage boys and young men are not safe around Catholic priests. So many priests are predatory homosexuals that you can't make any safe assumption about any of them. And the Church is making no move to do anything at all about this. All they're doing (actually, all they're saying they're doing) is punishing them after they abuse. My teenage sons are not safe around Catholic priests. What a sad state of affairs.

Maybe that's the problem. We need a new type of collar for these perverts.

They should castrate any priest who abuses a teenage boy. I'm sure that would be a more effective policy. And it would keep those priests from sinning that way again, and protect the children they would otherwise have molested. ("If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off...)

She and other parishioners at St. Elizabeth's said that what had happened since the resignation suggested that even after American bishops had returned from their historic meeting in Dallas with a plan to end past cover-ups of priestly misconduct, the culture of secrecy and stonewalling that characterized the church's handling of such problems appeared entrenched.
That was made clear when the bishops voted against addressing the problem of clerical homosexuality. Business as usual.

Don't worry about what the Bishop's are or aren't doing - just keep sending money, and they'll tell you what to think, OK?

What does this comment have to do with what is in this article, or my reply? You'd better do a fast check on your reading comprehension skills or better yet, your motives.

Moments before she was handed the keys to St. Elizabeth's in fall 2000, Mrs. Samide said, she had an unsettling talk with the departing principal. "Document everything," she remembered Sister Francis Marie Sheridan cautioning her, "and watch the money."

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