Pedophile Priest & Boy Vacations with Bishop

The Record of Hackensack ^ | 4.18.02

[NYCVirago]

Admittedly Bishop Rodimer has made a lot of bad mistakes while he has been the Bishop of our Diocese, but you're trying to depict him as almost an evil man and I do not believe that to be the case.

Rodimer had to have known of the sexual abuse problem in his diocese for close to 20 years, as Pope Pius High School was closed in 1983 to pay a settlement in a sex-abuse case. You would think Rodimer would be a bit more aware of what was going on in his diocese after that happened.

[FBDinNJ]

Only people living a Monastic life are required to take a vow of poverty. That's besides the point though because Long Beach Island isn't exactly Martha's Vineyard or the Hamptons.

[yendu bwam]

What, exactly, does this mean? That priests can't go to a movie with teenage boys? That they can't go out for ice cream or a hamburger? I was interested in the priesthood at all because a good monsignor, Robert Forliti, took me under his wing and took a special interest in me.

ALL of the Catholic parents I know will never let their sons go to a movie or anywhere else with ours sons. It's horribly tragic and sad. But it's the priests and the hierarchy who have let this happen. We parents just want to protect our kids - and it's clear they're not safe with priests.

[yendu bwam]

Thanks. All of the bishops (including Rodimer) have known for years (as we are seeing time and again) that there was rampant active homosexual sex occurring in the priestly ranks. Most all knew of the many cases of teenage boy molestation. To think that Rodimer didn't suspect or know what was going on with his beach house friend strains credulity to the limit. For me, the worst thing is that Rodimer has never shown any but forced sympathy for the victims.

[Starwind]

Rodimer had to have known of the sexual abuse problem in his diocese for close to 20 years

And from the article: Rodimer had no knowledge of their relationship, and never asked about it.

I contend it is not normal to not make small talk about relationships with people using a vacation home. This was not benign ignorance, this was conscious avoidance, because Rodimer knew what the answers would be (or should be if Osinski were truthful)

[yendu bwam]

I contend it is not normal to not make small talk about relationships with people using a vacation home. This was not benign ignorance, this was conscious avoidance, because Rodimer knew what the answers would be (or should be if Osinski were truthful)

Rodimer knew Osinski for many, many years. I would be greatly surprised if Rodimer did not know Osinski was a homosexual. To then look the other way while this priest paraded around his young male teenage sidekick is hard to fathom. But clearly, in the Catholic Church today, where not only homosexuality has been totally accepted, but ACTIVE homosexuality as well, there has not been a drop of concern for having such men in close contact with teenage boys in general. The Church here has made the decision that it's perfectly all right for active homosexual men, many of whom have clear sexual attraction to teenage boys, to be in close contact with those boys. In the Boy Scouts, the welfare of children (a certain some of whom would be abused by active homosexuals) was a far greater concern than potentially offending homosexuals. In the Catholic Church, the welfare of kids has come dead last. But even now, priests get offended when parents are wary of letting their sons be in close quarters with them. I'm sorry. They lost their chance. Parents have no way of knowing anything about the (frequently bizarre) sexual practices of their priests, and clearly, vows mean NOTHING to many priests. Parents would be fools to allow their children close contact with priests. The Sodomite Church has greatly devalued its priests to satisfy the sexual urges of those priests. An incredibly selfish, devilish and self-centered policy that reeks with one of the worst kinds of sin (causing a child to sin).

[NYCVirago]

Only people living a Monastic life are required to take a vow of poverty. That's besides the point though because Long Beach Island isn't exactly Martha's Vineyard or the Hamptons.

But Long Beach Island is pretty pricey by New Jersey standards; I'd venture to guess that it's still more expensive than most of his parishoners can afford. I'm sorry, but considering how often Rodimer pleaded poverty and demanded that parishoners kick in more money, I find it a little much that he had a summer vacation home.

[FBDinNJ]

People from the Diocese of Paterson can't afford to go to LBI? I don't think you know what you're talking about. The Diocese of Paterson has a lot of quite extravagantly wealthy towns under its jurisdiction such as Chester, Chatham, Mendham, Madison, New Vernon, Flanders etc. Most people from these towns wouldn't bother going to LBI because they can afford to go elsewehere. LBI is considered to be the place where middle-class people go on vacation in this area.

[Coleus]

Post 17 gives some credence to the Bishop, since some cases had no merit. I did not say he was evil; he is more naive than anything else. I am not pleased with his leadership. He did absolutely nothing, in my view, for the pro-life movement in his tenure. Archbishop Meyers from Newark is only here 6 months and already he attended the living Stations of the Cross in front of the Englewood Abortion Mill and attended the NJ RTL convention. He's done more in 6 months than Rodimer did in 25 years! Nor do I like Rodimer's modernist ways with the way he designed all these new churches in circles with no statues or crucifixes in them. They look like protestant churches. He did very little to push the voucher program, Catholic schools are closing up all over the place, and according to the article in THE WANDERER he sold Pope Pius XII to settle a sex abuse case, that is wrong. He should have fired the priest instead of covering it up. This Fr. Hanley character is NO priest and Rodimer should have had him defrocked. And in the same article, it depicts the diocese as den of iniquity harboring many homosexuals. One of who was arrested in Clifton, caught in the act with another priest, and was still teaching at DePaul High School, that's despicable.

[NYCVirago]

People from the Diocese of Paterson can't afford to go to LBI? I don't think you know what you're talking about. The Diocese of Paterson has a lot of quite extravagantly wealthy towns under its jurisdiction such as Chester, Chatham, Mendham, Madison, New Vernon, Flanders etc. Most people from these towns wouldn't bother going to LBI because they can afford to go elsewehere. LBI is considered to be the place where middle-class people go on vacation in this area.

It also has towns like Paterson, Passaic, and Clifton, which are working-class towns. I went to Catholic school in that area, and I can't tell you how many times we kids had to sell candy or work at school fundraisers in order to try to keep our schools alive. Yet Rodimer, the bishop of this diocese, is spending his parishoners' money on lawsuit settlements for pervert priests, and vacation homes that the people I went to school with could never afford -- people there were lucky to get to go down the shore for the day, let alone have a beach house for the summer! And the area where I grew up has been the hardest-hit by the school closures. I'm sorry, but when your diocese is pleading poverty, your bishop shouldn't get to spend his summers down the shore.

[FBDinNJ]

I agree with you that what has been going on in our diocese for the past few decades is awful, but I just look at it by asking myself if Rodimer is any worse than any other Bishop in the country. Immorality, homosexuality, and liturgical abuses are rampant in just about every diocese in this country where there is not a fairly conservative Bishop at its helm. I agree with you about Archbishop Meyers, though, because he's granted the Indult for the Latin Mass that I've been attending at Holy Rosary Church in Jersey City, and he seems to be a fairly active Bishop.

[Steve0113]

"We prayed together every day, we said Mass together...

I don't buy this. How could he have a devotion to prayer and the Mass, while sodomizing a boy in his spare time?

[NYCVirago]

I contend it is not normal to not make small talk about relationships with people using a vacation home. This was not benign ignorance, this was conscious avoidance, because Rodimer knew what the answers would be (or should be if Osinski were truthful)

Exactly!