Posted on 03/30/2002 7:41:09 AM PST by sinkspur
Man named in cases in Nebraska served time for abuse as chaplain
LINCOLN, Neb. – The Navy confirmed Friday that an ex-priest accused of sexually abusing four Nebraska brothers in 1978 was later convicted of lewd conduct involving boys as a military chaplain.
Robert Hrdlicka, who became a Navy chaplain in 1986, was court-martialed for seven counts of acts unbecoming an officer, Navy spokesman Lt. Jon Spiers said. Mr. Hrdlicka was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1993 and released in 1999. His whereabouts are unknown.
The case – among many to rock the Roman Catholic church across the country – has been revived in the Lincoln Diocese, which said this week that the four brothers, now adults, are demanding $2 million to keep quiet about their alleged abuse at the hands of Mr. Hrdlicka.
A lawyer for the diocese said it did not intend to pay the men.
As Easter weekend approached, sex abuse scandals that have troubled the Roman Catholic Church continued to come to light across the country:
• In Boston, police arrested a man who tried to confront the priest he had accused of sexually abusing him 23 years ago. Garry Garland, 38, who was arrested Thursday at the home of Monsignor Frederick Ryan, is charged with driving offenses and disorderly conduct and was expected to remain under psychiatric care.
• St. Louis school officials defended the district for hiring a defrocked priest as an elementary school counselor, saying the church secretly settled sex-abuse lawsuits against him. The comments came a day after the former priest, James Beine, was accused of exposing himself to boys at the grade school.
• In Detroit, a county prosecutor subpoenaed a bishop for information in an investigation into a sexual misconduct charge leveled against a priest by a woman.
In the Navy case, Mr. Hrdlicka was relieved of duty after an investigation began into reports of molestation while he was stationed at the Naval Air Station Sigonella in Italy in 1988. Investigators said there were two incidents in Italy and five in Beaufort, S.C., involving boys ages 7 to 11.
Lincoln Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz said there was no record of any accusations against Mr. Hrdlicka when the bishop took over in 1992.
He said he suspended Mr. Hrdlicka in 1993 after learning of his Navy troubles. Bishop Bruskewitz said he then launched an inquiry and eventually learned of the allegations made by the brothers.
He should be executed.
While Lincoln's diocese is no doubt quite conservative today after 10 years of such a wonderful bishop as Fabian Bruskewitz, it was not necessarily so in the more distant past. Mere notice of its location in the breadbasket proves its conservatism no more than a diocese being located in the Dallas or Forth Worth area proves its conservatism (NOT, as we both know). You are correct that whether or not a diocese has pederasts and pedophiles among its clergy is not necessarily a function of the ideology of the bishop.
On the other hand, Bishop Bruskewitz is exactly the model of the kind of bishop we ought to be looking for everywhere in regard to stemming the current controversy and minimizing the likelihood of future scandals of the same sort.
Like anyone else, a bishop can only make history. He cannot change history. If it turns out that this perverted priest who was terminated by Bishop Bruskewitz as soon as his evil behavior in the military became known to the bishop, also committed such acts of perverted child abuse as a Lincoln diocesan priest, the diocese will probably be made financially responsible by the courts provided that the relevant statute of limitations has not lapsed. It is overwhelmingly likely that the criminal statute of limitations has long since lapsed. And both of those statutes had likely lapsed prior to the appointment of Fabian Bruskewitz as bishop.
As the article says, the four "young men" who are making the non-service related accusations are demanding $2 million to keep quiet and the diocesan lawyer has stated publicly that they will not be paid. Unless this is sloppy journalism, it sounds like a claim, not for damages for the alleged abuse itself, but for hush money. In the law, we have a name for that sort of thing: extortion. Extortion is a crime of larceny and with a demand of $2 million ought to carry a penalty of 20 years or so, even if divided four ways to $500,000 each.
Bishop Bruskewitz has no obligation to pay hush money. Quite the contrary since he is the steward of church assets in his diocese. Indeed by having his lawyers publicly refuse payment, he is bringing the controversy out in the sunshine where it belongs. He has already separated the miscreant from the priesthood and from the diocese upon discovery of his misbehavior in the military. If there were other known cases in Lincoln, we can certainly trust that the Associated Press would have so informed us especially in the current atmosphere.
So, it sounds like the Lincoln diocese has a clean bill of health under its shepherd, Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz. How many dioceses of whatever inhouse persuasion can say the same?
The remedies remain the same. Close every seminary in the country and replace them with about four regional seminaries. Fire existing seminary personnel including all psychologists and psychiatrists and each and every modernist, but fire all in any event by abolishing their seminaries and their jobs. Hire for the new seminaries only those MEN of the cloth who are certifiable sure things as to sexual orientation, orthodoxy, holiness, genuine priestly zeal and a vigorous attitude toward cleaning house with the next generation of priests, men on fire for the Lord and enthusiastic for the dogmas of the faith.
Bring in orthodox Third World priests to fill up the parishes throughout the country for the time being and to take over day to day responsibilities from the liberal parish lay bureaucrats. The salaries saved will more than pay for the new priests who have come to America as missionaries for the actual faith.
Restore the traditions of the Church and regard the resulting refugees as being honest in their own faith whatever that may be. Recruit a new generation of converts for a truly Roman Catholic Church ready, willing and able to militantly confront and defeat the accumulated degeneracies of American culture in our era.
Bruskewitz is having to deal with a situation not of his own making, and should invited the four young men to be as public with their stories as possible. Lance the boil completely.
Happy Easter to you and yours.
As I have indicated to you in previous posts, I often do attend Novus Ordo masses at various parishes to keep up with what's going on in those churches which are not Tridentine (obviously the overwhelming majority). We are blessed in the Rockford diocese with several Third World priests, young men of wonderful zeal who exude a pastoral manner and holiness that I wish my family would experience as well to remind them of the holiness that can be found in many Novus Ordo parishes. My dad was attended in his final illness by a Vietnamese priest who was a wonderful comfort to him and to us.
I don't mean to suggest that Third World priests are inherently superior but we could use many of them to fill the gap while a new generation of priests is recruited and genuine renewal occurs.
God bless you and yours and shower you with His graces at this, the most holy of feasts.
I think we two agree that those who, in positions of authority, have played musical chairs with the abusers to hide the abuses are at least as guilty as the abusers themselves.
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