By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
A St. Louis newspaper has falsely accused Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis of welcoming “dozens of proven, admitted, and credibly accused predator priests” into his diocese simply because two treatment centers for priests are located in his diocese.
According to a press release by the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, the June 29 edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran an editorial on the recent papal appointment of Archbishop Burke as head of the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican’s highest court.
Although the article was mostly positive, it ended with a shocking paragraph citing accusations made by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). The group charged that “dozens of proven, admitted, and credibly accused predator priests have been welcomed here.” It also said that “there’s not a bishop in America who has imported so many pedophile priests into his diocese as Burke has.”
“No bishop ever welcomes or imports troubled priests into his diocese,” said Catholic League President Bill Donohue. “What many do is treat priests for behavioral disorders at various centers. That is exactly what they are supposed to do—give men who need treatment the help they need.
“As it so happens, there are two treatment facilities located in the Archdiocese of St. Louis—one in Jefferson County and one in Franklin County. The Archdiocese neither owns nor operates them and both were built before Burke became the Archbishop of St. Louis.
“I’ve been waiting all week for SNAP to send us the evidence that the Archbishop ‘welcomed’ and ‘imported’ molesting priests into his diocese. But it hasn’t been able to deliver. All that exists is the vicious interpretation by SNAP.
“This is anti-Catholicism writ large,” Donohue said.
“What we have is an advocacy group that is going broke because it can’t get any more money from steeple-chasing lawyers and a prominent newspaper swallowing its moonshine. The newspaper owes Archbishop Burke a public apology and SNAP needs to take an ethics class or shut down altogether.”
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