Posted on 05/30/2007 7:53:03 AM PDT by NYer
A deacon formerly associated with the controversial Society of St. John will not be a priest in the Catholic Diocese of Paterson, N.J.
Deacon Joseph Levine is still a deacon in the diocese, but will not be ordained to the priesthood, Marianna Thompson, the diocesan communications director, said Tuesday.
The diocese announced late last week that Deacon Levine would not be ordained Saturday in Paterson as previously scheduled, but released no other details. Four other men were ordained.
Ms. Thompson confirmed Deacon Levine’s ordination is off permanently, a result of the “discernment” process during which the deacon and church officials examined his call to the priesthood.
“As we deepened and widened our discernment process, we discerned not to ordain Mr. Levine,” she said. “He will not serve as a priest in the Paterson diocese.”
Deacon Levine is the former superior general of the Society of St. John, a clerical association once headquartered at a rural compound at Shohola in Pike County. Recognized by the Diocese of Scranton in 1998, the society was suppressed by Bishop Joseph F. Martino in 2004.
At the time of the group’s suppression, two of the society’s priests were the subject of a sexual abuse lawsuit filed by a former St. Gregory Academy student. The Diocese of Scranton settled the suit in 2005.
Diocese of Paterson officials acknowledged receiving questions about Deacon Levine’s suitability for the priesthood. In an e-mail to the diocese last month, Society of St. John critic Jeffrey Bond, Ph.D., accused the deacon of covering up alleged sex abuse by society priests while superior general.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, which asked the diocese not to ordain Deacon Levine, applauded the decision.
“SNAP is very pleased that the Diocese of Paterson is taking a proactive stance in screening its candidates,” said Father John P. Bambrick, outreach coordinator for the organization’s New Jersey chapter.
David Clohessy, SNAP national director, said colleagues and supervisors who have knowledge of abuse by clergymen have a moral obligation to speak up, and there should be consequences for “secrecy and duplicity.”
“We think the bishop should trumpet this far and wide,” Mr. Clohessy said.
Ping
This is not a comment on the suitability of Deacon Levine for the priesthood, because I have no idea about him, but a comment on SNAP. IMHO SNAP itself is becoming a corrupt organization, using its victim status to lash out against the clergy without sufficient evidence. I’ve seen it happen here on Logn Island. They should get their asses sued for defamation in several cases.
re: Diocese of Paterson officials acknowledged receiving questions about Deacon Levine’s suitability for the priesthood. In an e-mail to the diocese last month, Society of St. John critic Jeffrey Bond, Ph.D., accused the deacon of covering up alleged sex abuse by society priests while superior general.
Ummm... he was superior general as a deacon?
The one parishioner involved in these groups later went on to become an ordained minister in the Catholic Church of America or some such nonsense. She keeps company with Wiccans and New Agers now.
I think SNAP is more interested in shaking down the church than they are in finding the truth about abuse.
Yep. They were that pathetic. There was no one left after the boom fell who had not been accused or who had jumped ship.
There was another priest with the SSJ who seems to have disasoccated himself from the charges with the other two although he had originally been accused as well. As a seminarian he had been kicked out of the indult order of ICKSP in the early 1990's for homosexulaity but accepted by Bp. Williamson of the SSPX in their Minnesota seminary and ordained in spite of that.
The fledgling SSJ left the SSPX in the late 1990's & were sheltered and trupeted by Bp. Timlin, the then ordinary of the novus ordo diocese of Scranton.
The founder and head perv of the SSJ, Fr. Urrotigoity had been thrown out of the SSPX seminary in Aregentina but despite all of that accepted by WIlliamson, ordained and made an instructor at the SSPX seminary where he gathered his little "coterie" around him.
But one of course can always count on the novus ordo and the SSPX to look out for the best interests of their respective flocks![/sarcasm off]
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